


The night his mask fell

by cisco_centric_4ever



Series: Harem stories [2]
Category: Bleach, Naruto
Genre: F/M, Forced Feminization, Forced Marriage, M/M, Mpreg, Multi, Onesided Love, Open Marriage, Possible Character Death, Rape/Non-con Elements, Strong Naruto, other fandom reference, smart naruto
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-05
Updated: 2018-06-26
Packaged: 2018-12-11 07:47:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 59,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11709999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cisco_centric_4ever/pseuds/cisco_centric_4ever
Summary: A boy, simply innocent was forced to live a life that he does not deserve. Lies, abuse, pain. hurt, and then he gets raped.Naruto Uzumaki, after joining the ANBU ranks at the age of nine, finally makes a name for himself. He climbs the ranks and is soon named the captain of his own team, where he makes two friends, a Nara and an Akamichi. As the three keep their ANBU life secret from their regular one, as they all attend the academy to become an official ninja, trouble arises. And then there's the Mizukage who also came along for the rid, not wanting to be a political puppet no longer. Also, a new team is formed by the hands of Hiruzen, and an old friend of the 3rd likes his idea for this new team. This new player wants to make this team grate, one of a kind, by taking them higher than all others, even bringing them out of five nations.There's also a rumor going around: the Yellow Flash and his wife had a child. But it doesn't seem to be Naruto. Will the truth behind the rumor prove to be too much to handle for poor Naruto?





	1. That beginning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter edited on 12/19/2017

Naruto Uzumaki woke up early this morning thinking that today would be a good day, since today was the day he was going to take the genin exams. Naruto was so excited, he and Kurams, the nine tailed fox that lived within him, had been training for a very long time now. Yes, Naruto knew about the fox, the fox was the first and only person to care for Naruto and be his guide. He felt that he owed the fox everything, even though he knew that the fox wasn't his father by blood or anything as small as that, he still looked at the fox as if he was his actual father. As Naruto made his way to the academy with his SS-rank level skills so that he would not get caught by any passing ninja, or seen by civilians, the true demons of the village, he thought about his time at the academy. Well, there wasn't much to think about actually, everyone heated him. His teached switched him out of their class every few months until Iruka finally showed up and put a stop to that, however, Naruto could tell two things about the scared face chunin that liked to play the fair teacher role. 

 

 1. Iruka was actually sent to spy on him by the hokage and make sure that he at least knew how to throw a kuni or something.

 

 2. Iruka was only a chunin, so if Naruto was to, say, replace himself with a shadow clone, instead of the clone that academy students were supposed to know, then he would get away with it. Plus, such a high level of jutsu done by the academy's dobe would be laughable, so that is why he was never found out.

 

Now don't get him wrong, Naruto liked Iruka as a teacher and all, but there was just something fake about the chunin that set Naruto on edge whenever he was around him. It was a wonder if Iruka even knew how to wear a proper mask, since Naruto had been wearing one since he was about three, maybe three and a half? Oh well, he's been wearing his 'dobe', 'happy go-lucky', and his 'I'm the biggest idiot in the world, but I'm still going to become Hokage', mask for so long, that it didn't take him long to see through other people's mask. He saw the world in it's true form, he saw when someone was lying and he saw when they were being true, he saw when they were actually trying to be friendly, and when they were not. He could see it all, he had the eyes that passed judgment on all that tried to make him fall, and to be honest, he was tried of it. He was tired of wearing a mask, tired of hiding, he was tired of this boring story were he's just supposed to be an idiot just so that the villagers don't beat him up ever day like they used to when he was one and two. He was so tired, and he was angry too. Angry and the Sandime for telling him to wear this mask. Angry at the villagers for treating him the way they do. Angry at his parents for leaving him behind in the village, a village that couldn't keep their word to a dying man even if they tired. He was sick of it...so that's why he made the choice to stop acting dumb, and start showing people just a hint of what he's capable of, then, then they will see him. They will see him as something strong, something smart, but also as a person with the power to protect the village. He was sure that they would see him soon enough that he picked up his passe on the way to school that he got there and was in his seat half an hour before the bell rang.

 

 **"Oi, kit, I think you might have forgotten something,"** Kurama roared in his head.

 

Naruto looked down at his self,  _"hm? pencil, eraser, pants, shirt, shoes, nope, nothing missing there Kurama-sensai, I even washed my jacket last night so it would dry before I left. What do you think I'm missing?"_

 

Kurama rolled his eyes,  **"oh I dob;t know, how about HE GENJUTSU THAT HIDS YOUR EARS, TAIL AND SCARS!"**  

 

Naruto took another look at himself, he looked at his bone thin arms that laid against his skin, showing barely any fat to speak of. He looked at how the clothes he wore hung on his as if they were still on the hanger, but most of all, he looked at the scars, scars that had covered his body for who knows how long. A sick feeling turned in his stomach and he had to resist throwing up right then, he closed his eyes and sighed,  _"right, I had forgotten about them."_ He thought to the fox before putting up the genjutsu around him, now he looked like a healthy-ish blond boy with bright yellow hair and equally bright blue eyes, when he was actually the opposite. It had literally been days since his last meal, but he didn't tell anyone, why? Because he was used to not eating for so long, and no one really cared. It was sad, but the truth usually is something that people don't want to hear. Naruto decided to put his head down on the desk ans wait until everyone showed up, he was feeling especially tired today because he had spent most of the night before fighting for his life, and then the other part trying to save lives, but more on that later.

 

When Naruto closed his eyes and went to sleep, the kids started showing, since Naruto had sat in the far back today, and Kurama had made it soon both their chakra were invisible to others, no one noticed him. Yet. A bunch of elephanys could be heard making their way closer and closer to the academy, and then closer and closer to the classroom, until the poor door was slammed open by said elephants. Both screaming "I GOT HERE FIRST! NO I DID, NO ME, NO ME, NO-" over and over and over again at the top of their lungs. They were none other than Sakura Forehead Haruno, and Ino The Great Pig Yamanaka, they were being so loud and annoying, that they woke up our favorite blond. But instead of yelling out to his 'crush', Naruto just sat there and watched them, still too tired from his previous mission to care about his mask, not that he cared about it before.

 

Iruka came in and shut the idiots up by using his big head jutsu to yell 'SHUTUP!' at them, making them take the two empty seats by Sasuke. He then explained the exam tjhey would be taking today and how it would all work out, the different parts to it, and blah, blah, blah, you already know the deal. So Mizuki passed out the test, making sure that he gave a genjutsu paper to Naruto for him to take, and with any luck, fail, but Mizuki didn't see when Naruto dispelled the jutus by just touching the paper. Like I said before, Naruto could see everything, from fake to truth, it didn't take much more than a glance to see that Mizuki had put a near A-rank level jutsu on his paper. When Naruto had the paper in front of him with he real test questions, he raised an eye brown in confusion, then Kurama asked the one thing that was on both their minds,  **"what the fuck is this? Is this a joke, are they trying to get someone killed out there? This is embarrassing,"** Kurama ranted in the blond's mindscape, which, by the way, he turned into a luch forest of the fox's fantasy. 

 

Naruto sighed,  _"Kura-chan, please stop being so loud, you're giving me a headache again."_

 

Kurama huffed,  **"stop using that blasted nickname and I'll think about it, giki."**

 

Naruto grumbled to himself silently about loud mouth fox's, but his voice was low enough that no one heard, not that they were paying him any mind. They all thought he would fail, he could tell by the way some of the kids in the class would glance at him and snicker. However, when two minutes passed by, Naruto's head was on his desk, his paper already being flipped over and he was fast asleep. They had been given an hour and a half to complete the written test, but Naruto did not need half that much time.

* * *

 

**After the first test**

 

When everyone was done with the test, Mizuki collected the test so that Iruka could grade it, he didn't bother looking at Naruto's papers. He was so confident that the blond failed that he was practically floating on on air. When the test papers were in Iruka's hands, he spoke up, "alright everyone, Mizuki sensai will be taking you all out to the traning field for the second test. You will all line up in alphabetical order and wait until you name is called, okay, good luck to all of you!" He said as everyone started to get up and head for the door. Iruka looked at the test in front of him, "now then, lets see how everyone did, Kiba...eh, not too bad, Shikamaru, as lazy as ever I see *sigh*, Sakura, very good...." he went like that until he got to Naruto's paper. He was about to put it to the side and continue on to Ino's papers, but then thought he might give the kid a brake and took a look at his test, his eye became wide as he marked off the answers. He didn't even need the answer key because Naruto's answers were the answer key itself, Iruka chacked, double checked, and triple checked until he was sure that he wasn't going blind or something. "This can't be!" He exclamed and raced out of the class room, leaving a clone to finish the rest of the papers for him.

* * *

 

**Outside, same time**

 

Mizuki had lined everyone up as how Iruka said, he called their names and they threw kuni and shurikin into targets. It it came close to Naruto's turn, he heard someone running towards them, he looked up and saw that it was Iruka, "Iruka? What are you doing here? I though the test papers would have taken you at lest another thirty minutes or so to complete," Mizuki stated in a slightly surprised tone, while everyone else turned to the other chunin.

 

"Ah yes, it will, that's why I left a clone to do the rest, I wanted to eh, see how everyone else was going, that's all," Iruka slightly lied.

 

Mizuki could tell that it was a lie, Naruto could too,  _"he's not even trying at this point, he must have seen my test, *sigh* now the old man will be on my case later, oh joy."_

 

**"Oh cheer up kit, did't you want to drop the mask anyways?"**

 

 _"Yeah, but it seems to be kinda troublesome now,"_ in the group of students that finished the second test, a pineapple haired boy sneezed.

 

Mizuki shrugged, "well whatever, it's Naruto's turn now, come on up Naruto, and try not to hurt yourself," he tested and the other kids laughed. All except Naruto who rolled his eyes, he walked forward and waited for Mizuki to give him the weapons he would need. Right away Naruto could tell that there was something off about the kuni and shurikin he got, but decided to ignore it for the time being, he would see what's up in seconds, "alright, you know what to to," Mizuki said as he stepped back, pushing Iruka back with him. The scared chunin seemed a little puzzled by this action, but then remembered the time that Naruto managed to throw a kuni at the target and make it bounce odd, hit a tree, and then cut of one girl's pony tail. He still had no idea how he managed to do it on 'accident' but he didn't want to get to close to him when he was throwing things after that day.

 

Naruto watched as the rest of the kids moved away from him as he got ready to throw,  _"here goes," h_ e thought and threw the first kuni. The Kuni was a little wobbly but managed to hit it's target just fine, which caught everyone off guard. He was about to throw anouther when he felt the other kuni in his hands start to shake,  _"that's what he was planning huh, well it's not a bad prank, but it could use some work,"_ he though and threw the rest of kuni and shurikin. They all hit dead center, just like the first, before the sound of and explosion was heard. the stump went up into flames and Naruto did handsigns at high ANBU level and preformed a water jutsu to put out the fire. "Water style: Air Rain," he said in a dull voice before walking over to stand with the rest of the kids, luckily for them, they had more than just one target to practice on, or else this would have been inconvenient. He looked over at Iruka and Mizuki, who first had surprised then shocked looks, but it soon turned into anger for Mizuki, while Iruka stayed at the first two.  _"That guy got problems,"_ Naruto thought and Kurama nodded his head.

 

* * *

 

**Back inside, third part of the test**

 

Naruto was in the back of the room again, his head on the desk trying to catch some Z's before he gets called in, when all of a sudden, the lights above him go out. He cracks one eye open to see a large ball with pink hair coming out of it, it took him a second before he realized that it was just Sakura's forehead. "What do you want Sakura-san, I'm tired and I want to get some sleep," he drooled out, almost exactly like when Shikamaru does it.

 

"NaruTO BAKA, DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE DONE OUT THERE? YOU COULD HAVE KILLED SOME ONE, OR WORST, YOU COULD HAVE HURT SASUKE-KUN!"Yelled the forehead with pine hair.

 

Naruto looked at Sakura for a moment, "gomen, but I don't speak crazy, the last I checked, you and Sasuke-san were no were close to the fire when it happened. How would I have killed or hurt anyone if no one was around the thing when it went off? In fact, the fire was so small that a cup of water could have put it out, so how could've anyne gotten hurt?"

 

"BECAUSE IT'S YOU AND YOUR AND EVIL DEMON, MY MOM SAID SO," Sakura shouted as every one watched Naruto's reaction, expecting him to cry or whine about being called such a thing. Sakura was smiling smugly at the blond male, thinking that she had won, sh looked back to see Sasuke was watching everything go down from hisseat, which made the banshee blush happily.

 

Naruto just stared at the pinkette for a long while, the room was dead silent as everyone waited to hear what the 'dobe' had to say. When they thought that he was finally going to say something, the door at the front of the class opened and in came Iruka and Mizuki, "alright everyone, take your seats." Iruka stated as he got everyone's attention, "we'll be starting the last part of the test, this time we are going to bee calling each of you in, one by one, so you can all do the academy basic. Like before, we will be going in alphabetical order, so first up, Shino Abarame, please follow us," both chunin exited the room with the called student following behind them. However, just before leaving the room, Mizuki glanced up at the blond who was the center pf attention not even two seconds ago, he sent a smirk his way, but the smirk turned into a sneer when Naruto just turned his head away from the white haired chunin.

 

* * *

 

**Some hour later**

 

It was finally Naruto's turn to enter the room to take his test, just about all of the kids in class had either gotten their head bands and left the building, or had to leave without them. Naruto was sure that most of the students in the class got their head bands and left, however, it would be more likely that it was the clan kids that got theirs and not the civilian kids. Honestly, Naruto still wondered why the Hokage even let so many civilian kids into the academy, was he really lowering the standers that low? And as for all the lessons that they had to endure through out the years here, Naruto didn't hear a single thing here that he could have looked up in the library himself. Which he did. Actually, when Naruto was six, he had already snuck into the shinobi part of the library and read all the books that he could get his hands on, and he would have to say that those books were more informed that the academy lessons that was given. Yet, he didn't say anything, who was he to correct the information of idiots that don't want the future generation to live past their twenties? Not him. Anyways, his name was called and he exited the class room to enter the exam room without so much of a word, he looked at Iruka expectantly, not even acknowledging Mizuki's existence in the room, because who has time for haters when you get a chance to move up in the ranks? Not him. 

 

"Alright Naruto, try to do the clone jutsu for us please," Iruka said kindly as he crossed his fingers under the desk, thinking that the blond couldn't see it. He did.

 

Naruto held up his fingers in a cross and three other Naruto's poof'd into the room, "next?" He asked nonchalantly, almost board even.

 

Iruka, shocked, stuttered out, "o-o-okay-ay, n-now d-do the replacement jutsu."

 

Naruto replaced one of his clones with the sitting Mizuki, shocking both chunins, then replaced his clone and the chunin back to their original places. Before Iruka had time to process  what had just happened, Naruto had one of his clones transform into Iruka, with the scare perfectly placed. Another clone transformed into Mizuki, another into the third Hokage, and then Naruto himslef transformed into the fourth hokage, which wasn't much of a difference since all he had to do was get taller, grow his hair out, and get rid of his whisker marks. The two chunin looked at the henged clones, shock and awe on their faces until Naruto undid the jutsu. "So, did I pass yet or what?" Naruto asked as his clones disappeared as he spoke, the two chunin didn't move, it seems that they brains were still processing how Naruto could have pulled of such feet's. And the only hand sign he used was for the first jutsu and not the second one, Iruka could tell that the clones were solid, and so could Mizuki, he wasn't blind enough not to see that, but he still wondered. How was Naruto able to do it, the last time both of them saw Naruto make a clone, it was half dead, completely pale all over, even the clothes, the legs were on backwards, and it barely looked as if the thing could stand up, let alone fight in a small spar. But now, now Naruto had solid clones, can do the henge on said clones, AND could replace his clone with an actual person, this went against their logic.

 

Naruto sighed, knowing that this would happen, he stepped forward and took a black head band from off the table, the only one of its kind in the bunch. He place it around his neck as h walked out of the room, making sure to stop by the class room to let Ino know that it was her turn. He didn't wait for her to notice his head band as he continued his walk outside. By the time that Iruka and Mizuki had finally processed what happened, Naruto was already out of sight and Ino was in front of them, waiting for instructions. Iruka looked at Mizuki, they couldn't just leave and chase the other blond to ask him questions, so they continued on like normal, "okay Ino, can you do the....."

 

* * *

 

**With Naruto, later that day**

 

Naruto had already reached back home, not that it felt like it, but hay, at least he could rest for a bit here. As he was slipping of into dream land, Kurama decided to pull him into his mindscape.

 

**Mindscape**

 

Naruto looked up at the fox as they were surrounded by green trees and grass, "what do you want Kurama? I'm tired."

 

Kurama sighed sadly as he looked at his kit,  **"I know kit, I know, but I called you in here because we have a problem."**

 

Naruto raised his brow, "oh? And what kind of problem would that be?"

 

 **"You remember the Mizukage, the one I was telling you about?"** Naruto nods,  **"well it seems that his tailed beast, Isobu, is having trouble keeping him under control. It seems like that presences he was trying to tell me about is finally breaking through, or has already broken through his last defenses. I think those two may be in some real trouble this time, do you think we could maybe help them out?"**

 

Naruto thought for a moment, "even if we can't do a hole lot for them, maybe there's something that we can do to help them a little. This is not a guarantee or anything, Kurama since I know he's your otouto and all, I will help you out. But until I get there and see what's happening with him myself, I can't say for sure if I can help or not."

 

Kurama smiled a toothy smile,  **"that's all I ask, you can pop a solder pill on the way and I'll let you use my chakra to get there and stuff. Oh! But before we go, I think you should take care of that Mizuki guy first, he's up to something, I can smell the snake on him,"** he growled. 

 

Naruto sighed again, "you too, huh? Well, I guess it was about time that someone put him down. I'll get my stuff ready."

 

**Real world**

 

Back in Naruto's apartment, the sun had already gone down, which means that Kurama must have warped the time in his mindscape to allow his body to get some sleep. It was one of the things that he liked about the fox, he let his body sleep when he was talking to him, making it like a minute had went by, instead of an hour. It must have been one of the reasons why the blond hadn't gone insane yet and murdered the villagers...yet. When Naruto was finished gathering up the things that he would need for both the Mizuki mission and the Mizukage mission that he was unofficially taking for and by himself, he would have to remember to write up a report of the old man later once he was done, he left his apartment. As he jumped from roof top to roof top, he was no longer wearing the hideous orange...thing, instead, he had on black ANBU pants, a navy blue muscle shirt with a black short sleeved jacket over it, black shinobi sandals, matching finger less gloves, and a ANBU mask in the shape of a fox. Yep, that's right, Naruto's in the ANBU, but no one in Konoha needed to know that, not even the Hoage knew about his true identity. As he was running, he sensed two chakra signatures coming his way, he put on his mask, changed his hair to black, and pumped a little of Kurama's chakra out around him in a henge so it wasn't easily dispelled. When the two chakra signatures were next to him he said in a gravelly voice, " **Boar, Deer, report."**

 

The one known as Deer said, "Kitsune senpai, we sensed you on the move and came to help. We had eyes on the target all day, but he hasn't made a move as of yet," said Deer.

 

 **"What about you Boar?"** Naruto/Kitsune asked when he saw the other man put a finger to his ear.

 

"Sir, it seems that the target is on the move," said Boar.

 

**"Where?"**

 

"The Hokage tower, sir."

 

Kitsune nodded,  **"very well, I have a mission for both of you,"** he said as they stopped on top of a store. The two ANBU knelt down befoer him, awaiting their orders, he took out some paper from his pocket and quickly wrote something down,  **"I want you two to head over to the Mizu village. A friend of mine is in trouble and will need help getting out of there, when you two get there, I want you to sneak in, make sure you're not caught or else."** A shiver ran up the two's spine before they nodded their heads, they already knew how their squad leader worked and did not want to know what punishment was in store of them if they failed this mission, Kitsune continued,  **"this mission is off the record. Not a peek about it to Hokage-sama, and if Donzo-san even catches a whiff of this, you know what to do."**

 

"Hai!" Both ANBU said at the same time.

 

Kitsune nodded,  **"get to the village and keep and eye on the Mizukage until I get there, I have something to do here still. Once I'm done I will be on the way soon after, dismissed."**

 

Both ANBU nodded their heads and disappeared from sight, Naruto turned around and continued on, but this time, in a slightly different direction than before. He jumped from roof top to roof top until he got to the place he was going to, he stopped and landed soundlessly on the ground. He undid his henge and walked into the building. The place looked like a war zone, he was surprised to see that there was still a guard alive, he ran to them and asked what happened, the guard said, "Mi-Miz-zuki, he t-t-took the s-scroll." Then the guy lost contentiousness, Naruto sighed and left the building, he ran at top jonin speed for a few minutes until he caught sight of the white haired chunin.

 

 **"Mizuki! Let go of the scroll and come with me,"** he said as he land on the tree in front of the chunin. Mizuki skidded to a stop on the branch in front of him, he had a panicked look on his face, since every one knew of Kitsune's record. His nickname was the Bloodied Kid Reaper. But then Mizuki's panic turned into a sneer, he laughed,  **"I'm glade you're having fun now, but really, we must be going. You have a date with T &I and I have other things to do as well."**

 

"Ha! Like I'll believe that load of shit, you demon, I know who you are! And I mean, who you are under that damned mask of yours! So why don't we stop playing pretend huh?" Mizuki laughed as he took out a kuni and threw it at the stunned ANBU caption. Naruto was stunned by Mizuki's words that he barely dodged the weapon heading for his face, he dodged it, but his face came off, causing Mizuki to laugh even more. "Ah ha! I didn't think that worm was telling the truth about you earlier, but now I know he wasn't lying, you really are a demon! Naruto Uzumaki!"

 

"T'che, and what now? Just because you know who I am, that just means that I get to kill you know," Naruto smirked, "I've been waiting for this for a long time."

 

But Mizuki laughed harder at that, which made Naruto feel uneasy, he felt that something was up, but couldn't put his finger on it. "You think you're going to kill me, you demon. Well you're wrong!" Mizuki shouted at the blond, he took out something from his weapon's pouch and smashed it against the tree he was standing on, soon the area was filled with a dark gray smoke that could barely be seen through. Along with the smoke came a smell that burned Naruto's nose and eyes, it made his head swim and he was coughing up a storm. "HAHAHAHAHA! Now let me have my fun before I sell you on the market for parts, you'd make me a pretty penny, and why not? It's the least you deserve for all those years you played pranks on me!" Mizuki's voice bounced around the area, coming from everyone at once, Naruto knew his sense's were shot, but he needed to be on alert. Suddenly their was someone behind him, they grabbed his waste, Naruto was shocked that he couldn't sense this until now, whatever this smoke was made out of, he needed to found a way to combat it. Or else he would lose the fight.

 

The hands that grabbed Naruto's waste belonged to none other than Mizuki, who laughed at the startled blond, "oh yes, I will have to take special care of you," he said. Before Naruto knew what was happening to him, he was slammed against a tree, making his head swim more violently than before. Mizuki pinned the blond by his throat with his forearm, while his other hand worked with the boy's pants.

 

"Wait, what the hell are you doing?" Naruto struggled against the chunin, but something in the smoke made him lose his strength, then he wondered about something,  _"if I'm like this, then why is he so strong? I'm in the ANBU for Kami's sake! What the fuck even is this smoke made_ of?" He said inside his head, he then wondered why Kurama wasn't answering his thoughts, the fox would almost always answer his thoughts in times like theses, but now of all time when he really needed the fox's comment he was silent? Something was definitely up with this smoke, and he needed to figure out what it is before something bad happens. 

 

**(Rape ahead skip if you don't like)**

 

As Naruto struggled against Mizuki, the chunin managed to undo the blonds pants and was already starting on his own when he spoke, "right about now, you must be wonder what's going on, hmm. Why are you so weak against me? Well too bad I don't feel like explaining it right now, but relax, you're lucky that this smoke will, at the very lest, take away some of the pain you'll be feeling soon." Mizuki whipped out his manhood and flipped Naruto around at the same time, pushing him up against the tree with one hand while his other lined his member up to the boy's small, unused hole, "but then again, that wont make much of a difference in my book." Mizuki slammed himself deep within Naruto's body, ripping a scream from the blond's lips involuntarily. Without waiting for the boy to get used to the feeling inside of him, Mizuki pulled out and slammed back into the blond with out much rhythm at first, but soon he found it and kept a brutal pace. Changing his direction very now and then so that Naruto could not get used to the feeling, not that the blond wanted to.

 

"Stop it, stop, wha-why are you d-doing this to me-e?" Naruto managed to get out as tears pricked his eyes, his head was pounding, his his nose burned, he could barely see, and his ass hurt like all hell. What's worse, Kurama still wasn't answering him, what the hell was going on? Kurama would always answer him at a time like this, even if the worse was still yet to come, the fox would still be there to talk to him, pull him inside his mindscape, something so that he wouldn't be able to feel the pain that the villagers would inflict on him. So why wasn't he answering? Mizuki laughed when he heard Naruto's whimpered cries and laughed when he felt the blond shake, but he didn't answer the blond as he pounded even harder into his body.

 

**(Rape end)**

 

Hours went by, Naruto couldn't tell how many, but he knew that they were there for a long time now, and he was tired of it. He was sick of the silent treatment from Kurama, even though he didn't know why he was getting it, he was sick of it. He was sick of Mizuki's laughter, his thrusting, his very BEING! But befoer Naruto could think of any other thing that he hated about this moment, he noticed something, his strength it was starting to come back to him. His head was starting to clear, and with it, he heard a voice that he's been longing to hear since the smoke appeared.  **"-t...-it....Kit! Can you hear me?"** It was Kurama's voice, at last.

 

 _"Kurama? Why did you ignore me after all this time?"_ Naruto thought angrily to his tenant.

 

 **"No, I wasn't ignoring you kit, I was trying to talk to you, to tell you that this smoke is actually a toxin that interferes with the sense."** Kurama shook his head in the Mindscape as he looked around, his lush forest had dimmed in color thanks to the toxin that made up most of the smoke, if it had continued much longer, it would have damaged his kit's brain.  **"Naruto, this toxin, it is meant to weak people, it works best on people with high chakra stores, or most pacifically, people who contain tailed beat. It's what they used on your grate aunt, Mito, during the birth of her second child. It cuts off their link with us bijuu, so that the jinturiki can try to take control again some how."**

 

Naruto thought about it for a second, but shook his head, he heard Mizuki laugh again and suddenly he was flipped around to face the basterd. Mizuki pinned Naruto's hands to the tree and planted his lips on the blond in a crushing kiss.  _"Kurama, tell me how to get over this smoke toxin thing so that I can deal with this guy,"_ Naruto thought heatedly to Kurama, who nodded his head, not liking the way Mizuki was handling his kit.

 

 **"Pules your chakra, make it go on and off every three or so seconds until you feel like your getting back to your old self. Then do one of those wind jutsu that I showed you when your were five, you remember them right? When your done doing that, kick this guys ass,"** Kurama growled the last part. He was disgusted by Mizuki and couldn't wait until to see Naruto rip him to shreds,  _ **"no one messes with my kit and gets away with it, no one,"**_ Kurama thought with an evil smile on his fox face, making him look more evil than when he attacked the village.

 

Naruto did as he was told and started pulsing his chakra, it didn't take more than ten seconds before Naruto's strength started flooding back into him. When he felt Mizuki cum for what felt like the hundredth time in a row since this started, he used his strength to push Mizuki off of him, Mizuki ended up flying back into a tree twenty meters away. Naruto wiped his lips and quickly made hand signs at top ANBU level speeds before whispering, "Wind style: Banshee's Scream of Terror." A large gust of wind cme out of seemingly no where, slammed into Mizuki as the smoke around them cleared at the same time, the jutsu hit Mizuki with full force and left many cuts all over the chunin's body.  Naruto didn't have to look down to know that his clothes would need to be changed before he left the area, but he didn't care about that right now, he ripped off the shredded cloth around his shoulders and pulled up his pants to preserve whatever dignity he still had, before dashing forth in the direction Mizuki had flew towards. When he got there, Mizuki was just regaining his contentiousness from the hit he took to the head when he was thrown.

 

Mizuki opened his eyes to see Naruto standing above him with only his pants on, he smirked, "well, well, well, it looks as if the demon finally got back to his own self." He sat up and started to dig in his weapons pouch again, "that doesn't matter, since you'll be back to being my sex toy soon enough!" He said, but then he noticed something, he wasn't reaching into his weapons pouch, because his weapons pouch was no longer where he head left it. When he threw the smoke bomb before, his pouch had been on his thigh, but now that he looked, he noticed that he was missing both his pouch and his pants. He sneered at the blond, "what did you do with my-"

 

"What? you mean this?" Naruto asked as he held up Mizuki's weapon's pouch, he hald it away from the chunin, as if he would give it back now, and looked inside it. "Now, lets see what it was that enabled me from moving or fighting back for so long," he looked into the pack and saw the usual. Some kuni, shuriken, solder pills, and then he saw a little black ball. Naruto took the ball out of the back he sniffed it and got a little dizzy from the smell, but he was still contuse enough to dodge Mizuki when he tried to lunge at him to get his stuff back, he laughed, "my, my, aren't you in a hurry, well I'll tell you what," Naruto said with a smirk which turned into an evil smile after. "If you can sit still through a little game of mind, then maybe I'll let you go."

 

"Yeah right, as if I'll do something like that, you demon," Mizuki said as he made hand signs for a jutsu. But before he could execute it, Naruto flashed in front of him and punched him in the stomach, causing him to lose focus and the punch disrupted his chakra flow, so the jutsu was void.

 

"Did you like that? I call it 'Disruption Fist', it's a little thing I've been working on for a few weeks now, although, you're the first living person I've tried it on. Thanks by the way, for being my test subject," Naruto said as he looked at Mizuki, the said chunin was on his knees holding his stomach, trying to keep from throwing up, and a clear look of disgust was on his face. "Now, about that game," Naruto said with a sweet look on his face.

 

* * *

 

**An hour later**

 

 

"Now wasn't that fun?" Naruto said in a sweet voice as he looked down at the white haired....man? It had been about an hour since Naruto had started playing his....game, with the chunin, and the man did not look so good afterwards. The forest was partly destroyed and Mizuki was no longer laughing or saying anything about the blond being a demon. He was laying against a tree for support, gasping for air, as his blood flowed from his body, or what was left of it, somehow, at some point in the middle of Naruto's little....game, Mizuki had become  _half_ a man. Don't ask me how, it's too gruesome to talk about now, but just now that it was bloody, and the only reason he was alive still, was because Naruto truly wanted to make him suffer, so he put a seal on him to make him life for forty eight hours after the seal was placed on him. Naruto had leared all about sealing when he was five, thanks to Kurama's teaching, and there four, knew how to make a seal that could keep people alive, even if it was for just two days and they were literally on death's door step. He made the seal for dying shinobi's to say good bye to their loved ones, and stuff, but he decided to test it out on Mizuki first to see how well it worked. But hay, at least he test his stuff out to make sure that it works before putting it on other people.

 

"Y-y-y" Mizuki coughed up some blood before tying to speak again, "y-you really are a de-demon," he crocked out as he glared up at the blond. However, since he was, lets say ripped, in half by something from Naruto's may secrets that you'll find out about later, his glare was nothing more than a pained stare. "I-I-I wa-was r-rig" cough up more blood, "right about y-you."

 

Naruto sighed and shook his head, "I am not the monster here, or at least I wasn't always as this." Naruto spoke up, "you do not know the first thing about me, but yet you pass judgment on me so easily, it must be fun, looking through the windows of someone else's life. You are the real demon here, I remember what you did to me, and what you have been doing, what you had done, and today....well that one just took the whole fucking cake, eh? You touched me like no one has dared to before, and you say that I should be honored that I don't feel as much pain because of a this smoke? You're pathetic." Naruto turned away from Mizuki and started walking away, "I am going to leave you here for a little bit, so you can think about your actions," he said loud enough for the dying man to hear. "I'll even leave you with a little entertainment to keep you buys until soemone comes to take you away," he turned half way and pointed his hand at Mizuki, "this one's of my child hood, in first person," then he turned and jumped away from the area. As he went, he heard screams come from Mizuki as his genjutsu took effect, he almost wanted to smile, but his vision became blurry and he had to stop before reaching the edge of the forest. He wiped his eyes, "what's going on? What's this stuff coming from my eyes?" He asked himself as he kept wiping at his watering eyes, "why wont it stop?"

 

 **"They are tears kit, they come from your heart?"** Kurama explained.

 

"M-m-my heart? But....I though that away when I joined the ROOT viviton and trained under Donzo?" Naruto asked himself quietly as he knelt down in the grass, the tears coming more frequently now.

 

 **"You were only eight kit, you couldn't throw away something like that, without even knowing how it worked yourself back then."** Kurama explained as the blond started to cry, Kurama sighed,  **"you might as well let it all out now, this'll make you feel better."** Kurama got up from the lake in Naruto's mindscape and made his way over to the tree lining before laying down and pulling his kit into his mindscape, Kurama gently wrapped one of his tails around Naruto before bringing him into his side.  _ **"This is going to trouble in the future, if something is born from this event, then that will make this worse.....I just hope that whatever team that old geezer is picking for Naruto, has people who will defend himlike a team should."**_ He thought before chuckling in his head,  _ **"yet, I feel that this news will only be the start of something big later."**_

 

 

 

 

 

**TO BE CONTINUED.......**

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a whole knew chapter than before, I hope you enjoy it.


	2. Saving a friend!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, by the way, this story is currently being rewritten, so if the first two chapters don't seem to match up with the third and so on, that's why. enjoy!

Naruto cried for a few hours until he couldn't cry any more, his head was hurting more now, but not from the toxin. Kurama had filtered out all the toxin from his body long ago while he was tearing Mizuki up into a bloody mess, now his head hurt from all the crying he did. Naruto never really cried before, not when he was smaller, or when he was a baby. He had learned quickly in those days, that crying gets you no where, and whining about stuff is the same difference. Taking a deep breath, Naruto got up from his spot and looked around, it was early morning, so that must mean that he had cried through out the night. He sighed and stretched, he took a look down at his clothes and wondered if he had time to get changed. But then shook that thought off and head towards the gate at top speed, reaching there and going through the gate without even being seen by the guards, pathetic. What was the point of Guard if they couldn't even sense when someone was leaving or entering? Plus they were asleep too! Konoha must really be going down the drain if security is this slack. 

 

 **"Oi, kit, you not going to take a shower something before heading to the Mizu village?"** Kurama asked as he yawned.

 

 _"Why? What's the point? It's not like I need to keep up an act for anyone this morning, lets just head to the Mizu village and see how things are going with Yagura. Once I know what's going on with him, I'll be able to help him out, and maybe we'll even see Gaara by change on the way back. I wonder how Shukaku's treating him by the way,"_ Naruto thought as he kept going to the Mizu village at top speed so that he could get there sooner.

 

**"Maybe you'll see him, maybe you wont, but either way, you're going to burn yourself out by the time we get there. You should probably rest a bit? Maybe take a nap or something and pick up a slower pace after-"**

 

 _"And miss out on solving a mystery? I son;t think you know me very well, Kura-chan, I'm going to keep going until I help out the Mizukage like I promised. Besides, I don't know why I would need sleep, I feel fine, well rested and ready to go! Nothing's going to get in my way today!"_ Naruto said happily in his mind as he was almost to the village by now, since he had switched from using ANBU speed, to using the Harashin, the same technique that his father was named Konoha's Yellow Flash for. Mine while, inside of Naruto's mindscape, Kurama was looking around, the lush forest wasn't just a forest to please the eye, it was also an easy access to Naruto's memories. When Kurama looked around at the forest mindscape, he notice that there was a new spot there, he walked over to see that the spot was a small lake only big enough to probably fit one or two full grown humans. The water inside the lake was murky and dirty, but when you look into it, you could see that this was the place where Naruto had put his memories of the night before, when Mizuki raped him plus others like it. Kurama  hung his head and turned away from the dirty lake, he had a sneaking suspicion that it would soon get bigger.

 

* * *

**Kiri, Mizukage tower**

 

After about half an hour of running, Naruto finally made it to the Mizukage's tower. He breath in the air and found that it smelled of blood and death, he could only guess why, but decided to confirm it later. He snuck into the tower and knocked out all of the guards on the first floor before Deer and Boar dropped before him, although they were a bit stunned, and for good reason. "Naruto? What the heck are you doing here?" Came Boar as he walked up to the blond.

 

"Yeah, and what the hell happened to your clothes? You look like you just got out of battle for your life!" Came the wondering, but worried sound of Deer's voice as he too, came to inspect the blond.

 

Naruto looked at the two as if they were insane, then he noticed something was amiss. He looked down at himself and saw that his clothes were in taters, since he left, and also, his mask was also missing, bit not only that, but his scares from long ago were showing. Since he didn't think that he had to face anyone today, he had forgotten that he had dropped his genjutsu around his scars,  _"ah shit, and just when I thought that I could relax a bit today, this had to happen."_ The blond though with a heavy sigh, something he seemed to be doing more often as of late, clearing his throat, Naruto decided that he would at least see what his ANBU teammate thought of him, I mean, they have been working with each other for more than a few month now. "Well then Deer, Boar, I think it might as well be time that you see who I truly am, I was hiding beind a mask my whole life, or at least since I was about three years old. It wasn't my choice, not really, the Sandaime made me do it, so I just went with it, it seemed to be a little less trouble some, as Deer would say, here I am to tell you the truth. However, I expect you to treat this as a SS rank secret, since all out here unofficially." Naruto explained in a tired voice, "now, if you two would remove your mask, on order of Kitsune, whom is I, you team leader, so we can get all your questions out in the open and get on with this mission."

 

Inside the mindscape, Kurama sweat dropped,  **"way to get to the point kit, now they're going to do everything you say,"** he said sarcastically. 

 

Naruto rolled his eyes at the fox before blocking an attack from his two subordinates, "who are you really, and why should we trust you?" Boar said as he had his partial expansion jutsu try to smush the blond into the wall, while Deer had a kuni to the blond's throat.

 

"More importantly, where did you get all that information from? That's classified info," Deer stated as he pushed harder on the kuni he had to the blond's neck.

 

Naruto stood there in the same spot, unfazed, and yawned again, he was actually starting to get tired now. "Okay listen, I can't get you to trust me just on rank info alone, so just ask me something person, something that no one but the real me would know, and only the real me could answer. You should also take into account about telling me something that not even the other person would know that you told me, and there for, can only be verified by you, and you alone. You have, hmmm....I'd say about two to three minutes to think it over and ask before the Mizukage gets here with reinforcements. Go."

 

Deer and Boar looked at each other for a second before pulling back their attacks and watching the blond carefully, "alright them," started Boar. "If you are the real Naruto Uzumaki, and also the Bloodied Kid Reaper, aka, Kitsune, then tell me.....what is the reason why did I join the ANBU, and what is my goal?"

 

"Simple, you say Naruto Uzumaki, me, getting beat up in an ally way by some assholes on his seventh birthday, the day he almost died. From that day forth, you had wanted to keep people like me safe, thinking that I someone should be able to stuck up for the little guys, since they can't always do it all on their own. Plus, you wanted to get stronger, so you asked a Kitsune how he became so strong to enter ANBU so young, he told you hard work and determination. Then you asked him to train you, he said yes, but it wouldn't be easy, and then a few years later, you joined ANBU and was placed on my team, along with Deer at the same time." Naruto explained, and told them the exactly events that took place to land them to their current spots today, "your turn Deer."

 

Deer thought for a moment before saying, "what is the name of the fox and what nickname does he hate with a passion?" He asked in a daring voice to the thought to be fake blond.

 

Naruto sighed, he knew that Kurama was not going to like this, but he had to answer,  **"kit you better not say it!"**

 

 _"Seriously Kuram? didn't you just hear that I have to?"_ Naruto thought to the fox before clearing his throat, "his name is, Kueama, and he hates the nickname, Kitty-kun," he stated stoically.

 

Deer and Boar looked at each other again before taking off their mask, Deer was Shikamaru, and Boar was Chouji. The two had joined ANBU at a young, secretly, for their own reasons. Chouji wanted to protect the people that can't protect themselves, but he also wanted to be strong enough to do so, and when he meet Naruto as Kitsune when he was younger, not knowing that it was actually Naruto back then, he asked him for training. Naruto just about worked him and Shikamaru into the ground with his training, it was hellish to say the least, but they were glade they received his training, because now they were stronger than anyone in their class. As for Shikamaru, he simply wanted to test his limits, sure he wanted to be strong and all that, but what good would becoming strong if it was straight forward? No, the regular training that his clansmen did to get stronger became a boring. No, what Shikamaru wanted was training, but it was with completely out of the box thinking. And that was what Naruto gave him, completely out of the box training....that almost killed them, but hay, at least he got his challenge, right?

 

Naruto cleared his throat, "alright, now that you two have confirmed that I am, who I say I am, let's move on. The Mizukage is behind you Chouji."

 

Chouji turned around just in time just barely dodge a swipe from the young Mizukage's large needle hook thing with a flower on it. "What kind of weapon is that?" Naruto thought out loud.

 

"It's my weapon, one touch of this will kill you you and turn your body into crystals," said the kid-like Mizukage as he got ready for another swing, "who wants to be turned into crystals first?"

 

 _"That's definitely not the Mizukage, the Yagura I know would never reveal his secrets to easily, someone else must be in control of him. The question is who.....Kurama?"_ Naruto thought, expecting to hear the fox rumble an answer to his container, but the fox was silent, Naruto pouted as he dodged yet another attack from the controlled Yagura.  _"Oi, Kurama-sensai, what's up? You keep this up and we're not having any ramen when we get back."_

 

 **"You wouldn't dare take away the sacred dish of the Gods!"**  Kurama roared, almost causing Naruto to lose his footing on the ceiling that he jumped onto to think.

 

 _"Try me and see, but enough about that, do you see what I see?"_ Naruto was on the ceiling above the Mizukage, Yagura's back was turned to him as he was fighting against Shikamaru and Chouji, it seemed like he may be winning the fight as well.  _"I need to up their training a little when we get back,"_ he analyzed.

 

Kurama looked out of Naruto's eyes and caught sight of the back of Yagura's neck, the first thing that he saw was a red mark in the shape of an old seal he used to see on prisoners way back when.  **"That seal, Kit, it's from the second grate shinobi wars. I remember when I was sealed inside of Mito, that this seal was created, she was forced to make it for all the prisoners the village got during the war, it works the same way that the more serious interrogation sessions work, by causing pain. Who ever put that on Yagura had to have been around during that time, but if that's so, then that person would either have to be an Uzumaki, or a ghost, because almost everyone from that time has just about died already."**

 

 _"Why an Uzumaki? I thought that I was the only one left,"_ Naruto said as he jumped down from the ceiling and tried to get a better look at the seal on Yagura's neck.

 

 **"Because of their bloodline,"** Kurama stated, making the blond raise an eye brow at the fox in his head. Kurama explained,  **"you see, a long ass time before you, or even you mother, was born, the Uzumaki people was plagued with infertility and very, very low sperm counts. Because of this, the Uzumaki people almost didn't exist in today's history books, but one day that all changed and they were blessed. Since then, all Uzumaki, man and woman alike, would live three times, four, or even sometime, five times longer than the normal human would, and they were usually young looking most of their days. That and their ability to heal, their sealing art, and other bloodlines, they were feared by very many people. But I can tell you about that later, but for right now, I know what kind of symbol they used in this seal."**

 

While Kurama was talking, he had managed to help out Chouji and Shikamaru in the fight by teaming up against him, after he knocked out the rest of the guard that came with him. Naruto had did one of his own jutsu's on the guards called, "Fire style: Dragon's eye" which created a a dragon that was made up of some parts wind and the rest was fire, the wind part was to help keep the fire part going. In actuality, Naruto's jutsu was able to become sentient for a small amount of time before it burned itself out and left burned bodies in its wake that was still alive, but badly injured. Shikamaru was able to use his shadow catching jutsu to hold Yagura still long enough for Chouji to slam an enlarged hand into the kage's childish body, while Naruto created a torrent of wind that swept up the Mizukage's dropped weapon. When they finally got Yagura disarmed, Naruto shot a blow dart into the kage's neck that made him calm down enough to be in a half sleep, half away type state, which would have to do. Naruto needed to work fast and gave orders for Shikamaru and Chouji to turn Yagura onto his belly and hold him down while he looked at his neck, the two boy's complied, no questions asked.  _"Alright sansai, what type of symbol is this? Also, this seal looks to be altered from the one I saw in the memories you showed me of Aunt Mito's seal. Do you think that someone was using her seal to try and brain wash, or maybe completely control Yagura so they could take over the village?"_

 

 **"Hmm, if that's so, then they're going about it all wrong, this seal here was meant to force the enemy to tell information that would be useful to our side. Guaranteeing us a victory. Although, this one here is to messed up and is only blocking Yagura's ability to fight back, even Isobu would have a tough time keep his sanity because of the way they did this seal."** Kurama looked at the seal as Naruto put his hand over it, through Naruto's hand, Kurama sensed something he didn't like about the seal, other than the fact that it was hurting his little brother.  **"Naruto, this thing, what ever it is, has turned Yagura into a living, human puppet, and we all know that puppets cant eat or drink or anything by themselves. From what I can sense within the seal, Yagura's body is days from shutting down on itself from the lack of nutrition, not only that, the basterd who did this didn't even seem to care about his pawn to put a 'exit' button in."**

 

 _"Well yea, wouldn't that be because they're trying to control the body and all that?"_ Naruto questioned as he started to take out his sealing tools.

 

Kurama shook his head, even though Naruto couldn't see him do it right now, he could feel it, it's a jinturiki thing.  **"No, not that type of exit, what I mean is this, you know when you're in the middle of watching a movie or something and you've just finished drinking a bunch or liquids?"** Naruto mentally nodded as he placed some special seal removal paper over Yagura's neck seal,  **"when even though you drank all that, you can't keep it. So you need an out, that would mean you would have to 'exit' you spot from the wherever your at so you can let it all out, but since Yagura's not in control and there's no exit for him to use....."**

 

Naruto's eye widen, "ah gross! This sick's been making him keep all that in for who knows how long!" He exclaimed out loud with out thinking, Chouji and Shikamaru looked at him with confused eyes. Naruto rubbed the back of his neck, "uh, gomen, I was talking to Kurama about the seal here," he said touching the seal, the two nodded. They had somewhat gotten used to their commander and chef either talking to himself or bursting out suddenly with something that only made sense to him until he explained it. Or it still didn't make sense to them, even he  did explain it.

 

"What did he say?" Chouji asked.

 

"He said that Yagura, the Mizukage here, wasn't able to eat, piss, or probably even sleep for an unknown amount of time. It's likely that he's going to have some liver problems when he comes to, and will be very, very hungry. If he doesn't pass out when he wakes up, I was successful in taking the seal off of him and he'll be okay, but if he does, then we've got a more serious problem on our hands." Naruto explained as Yagura's body started to struggle against Shikamaru and Chouji, Naruto got on top of the child kage to keep him from get up, but it was becoming a struggle. "Damn, Shika, use your shadow, Chouji, partially expand your hands to keep him in place," he ordered as he got off of Yagura, Shikamaru and Chouji did as asked while Naruto focused on the boy's neck and the seal there. He smooth down the paper the placed over the seal so that it was flush to his skin, he took out a paint brush and summoned a clone to hold the ink that he would need. He sued the ink and brush to go over the seal, making the paper glow as he did so, when he was almost done, Yagura let out an inhuman scream that was a cross between animal and a person in agony. Finishing the seal, he dropped the brush and pressed the seal down with both hands, not hard, but strong enough to keep the other boy's head down. He then closed his eyes and started mumbling words that the other two didn't understand before snapping his eyes open and saying, "KAI!" Just then the ground below them started to shake and a shadowy figure flowed from Yagura's back as the said boy seemed to scream louder because of it.

 

When the figure was all the way out of the Mizukage's body, he solidified himself to stand before them. He looked down at his hands and laughed, "may, may, looks like there is still one Uzumaki left after all this time...." the figure said as he looked at the boys. The man was dressed all in back, from head to toe, but the only thing missing was his face, which was covered by an orange swirl mask, he laughed again, "what a shame, I really liked the Uzumaki people, they were very good....in bed," he flashed behind Naruto suddenly and tried to strike him without him knowing it. But he was mistaken, because when he hit Naruto't neck, the blond went up into smoke, "what?" Said the man just before he was pulled down into the earth by a pare of hands, but then the man was see-through and was able to get away from the hands that was pulling him into the floors. He turned around looking for Naruto, "where are you, you little bitch?" He said second before a kunai with a paper bomb went through his head and came out the other side, although the bomb did not go off, "thought you could get me with that, eh? Well you were wr-" he started to say as he turned back around, trying to look for Naruto again, only to come face to feet with him, he was knocked onto the ground and skidded into the wall by Chouji. Naruto stepped out of the wall the man landed on and swiftly delivered a punch to the mans face, but the man was just barely able to dodge the punch, since it came so fast that he almost missed it. Naruto smirked, "I caught your attack, if you didn't realize it by now," the man said, a smirk in his voice.

 

Naruto own smirk became wider, "yeah, but I still caught you," he said before he slammed another hand onto the man's head before blowing up.

 

"Wha-" was all the man could get out before the explosion. 

 

Chouji used his family jutsu to cover him, his friend, and the knocked out Mizukage from the blast. "Did we get him?" He asked when it was over, he removed his large hands so that they could see the damage, the front part of the building, plus almost half the forest was taken out by the blast. Looking arounf them, they noticed that the walls were on fire and was ready to collapse in on them, but they also seemed to be being held up by something as some parts of the wall appeared to lean towards them. There was a crater around them and in the middle of that crater was them, still on leveled ground, when the area around them was a creator created by the explosion. Realizing this, a sinking feeling came to settle in the two continuous boys, "where's Naruto?"

 

The boy's were about to start searching for their comrade when they heard, "I'm right here," they looked to the source of the voice to see Naruto standing behind them. He was down to the ground and he was breathing heavily, he also had a more tired look on his face than before, "hay guys." He smiled his usual toothy smile for them before getting up, he wobbled a bit before he took a step back, he put a hand to his head, "do you guys mind carrying m...." His voice trailed off as he fell forward and the walls around the four started to come down on them.

 

There wasn't time to waste, and Shikamaru knew that, so did Chouji, "you carry the Mizukage, I'll take Naruto. We've got to haul ass before people start showing up," Shikamaru stated as he was already picking up Naruto and adjusting him onto his back, while Chouji did the same thing with Yagura on his own back. The two boys shiushined out of the collapsing building before making a run for the gate, while using their learned skills from Naruto to not get them caught. Thankfully it was some time during lunch that this hall happened, meaning that there would be slightly less people gathered at the gate to guard it, and since there was an explosion, even less people since others would want to check out what happened. However, this also meant that the peoplestill at the gates would be on even higher alert than before.  _"What a drag, I though this was going to be another sit down and wait for a couple of hours before going back home, but now, we had to spend the night, and half the day here. No doubt my clone will be dispelling in a few hours, and it took us almost half of yesterday to even get to this village at top speed. Now that we have Naruto, who turned out to be our actual boss and trainer for the past two years, is passed out on my back. Not to mention the fact that we are basically kidnapping the Yondime Mizukage, what the hell am I supposed to tell my dad if he was to find out about this?"_ Shikamaru thought to himself as he and Chouji both ran as fast as they could with the added weight on their backs

 

* * *

**Some hours later, inside the land of fire**

 

Shikamaru and Chouji, by the luck of the Kami-sama her self, and the blessing of Naruto's training, they were able to keep running until they got into the land of fire's boarders and past the ANBU stationed there to do boarder control. They had set up a small fire since it was past noon and the sun seemed about ready to start setting any minute now. They were camping close to a small village were Chouji went to get them more supplies for the night, because there was no way they could keep up their pace from earlier in a couple of house, they needed to rest first. It was also thanks to Naruto's training that they didn't pass out in front of Kiri's boarders, Naruto made sure that they had stamina for days before letting them join the ANBU, better safe than sorry. As Chouji came back from the village with their food, Naruto started to wake up, while Yagura stayed asleep, for now. "Nnggh, why head hurts," Naruto groaned as he slowly sat up.

 

Shikamaru chuckled lightly, "I guess that's what you get for fighting the Mizukage, removing a high level seal, fighting a ghost man."

 

"Not to mention also preforming a level 4.75 barrier seal after creating an exploding clone with the bomber jutsu you were warned not to use by the Hokage unless necessary." Chouji said before taking a bit out of the chicken he had made ahead of time befoer the mission, "and don't forget the fact that you still haven't told us what you were doing before you showed up here."

 

Shikamaru nodded, "yeah, I mean, I know you heal fast, but...what the heck could have happened to you that your clothes were ripped to shreds like that?" He asked as he pointed down at Naruto still completely ripped up clothes, the was surprised that the blond's pants still stuck to his body. Although, Shikamaru and Chouji was starting to question if Naruto's ripped up pants were now turned into a skirt thanks to the fight they survived in in the Mizukage tower.

 

Naruto looked down at what was left of his clothes and sighed, thanks to that last battle between him and that strange man, he was not surprised. Not much anyways, his pants were more like a rags around his wast now, "I'll be right back," he said he wobbly got to his feet and walked away from the two. When he returned, he was washed up and in clean clothes, black ANBU and a muscle shirt, shinobi sandles in a dark green, and a new pare of finger less to match his sandles. He walked back over to them and put on a forest green long sleeved jacket that he left open halfway down, "alright, ask," he said as he sat down.

 

Shikamaru was the first the speak, " what am I supposed to tell my parents? 'Hay tou-san, kaa-san, I was just out walking to my favorite cloud watching spot and just saw the Yondime Mizukage just laying there looking like he was a puppet for who knows how long, and decided to bring him home.' Or, 'hay, I was just having a sleep over at Chouji's house to celebrate our official genin stats when we decided to leave the village for about two and a half day now.' Huh?" He complained, he put his head in his hands, "oh man, this is so trouble some."

 

Naruto sighed, again, "you keep bringing up the obvious stuff, I'm gonna have to revoke your Nara card," he joked as he ate.

 

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, "not funny."

 

"No?" Naruto asked, "and what of you Chouji, you seem kinda quite over there."

 

Chouji looked up at his friends and smiled, "me? Well I was just thinking about what I would want my head stone to say, you know, since my kaa-san would have already prepared the food for my funereal and all."

 

"Damn, well, we'll just have to get to the Sandime and report in before you two go into hiding for a while."

 

* * *

 

**Back in Konoha**

 

 Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandime Hokage, was now having a mini heart attack at the sight of his ANBU. He was in his office fighting his greatest enemy when three people shushined into his office. He looked up to find three of his best ANBU, but not only that, on the back of one of his ANBU's back, was the Mizukage! Hiruzen had demanded to know what the meaning for this was and was told a tail that made his mini heart attack, turn into a mild stroke. He wasnn;t sure that he was hearing things right, and had asked them to repeat themselves. Their story didn't change and he was left with saying on thing. "YOU DID WHAAAAT!" Was heard all around the village that evening, some people had wondered if that was a cry for help, while others, mostly the ninja population, wondered what had their kage so stressed that he would stream out like that. Now as Hiruzen stood in his office, facing the three ANBU and the still sleeping Mizukage, another thing ran through his mind. "What in Kami-sama's name were you three thinking?" He asked, he then sat down in his chair, took a deep breath to compose himself before looking back to his ANBU with a sharp look, "explain everything, in detail, now."

 

The leader of the three, Kitsune, step forth and bowed politely before starting. "Hokage-sama, this mission was taken unofficially and there for, was all on me to complete it. I was not expecting Deer and Boar to tag along, but since I was in a hurry to get two things done, I was left with no choice but to have Deer and Boar take the lead for a while until I could join them."

 

"And what was so important that you let your team go on ahead of you?" Questioned the aged kage.

 

"There was a traitor in our mites, I could not leave the village until I had taken care of said traitor and find out all he knew. However, if I was to do so, I would have to put the Mizukage's request on hold, which, if I had, things would have gone much worse and we may not be standing here before you today."

 

Hiruzen nodded, "and who was this traitor you speak of?" Hiruzen asked.

 

"Mizuki Tororugi, he was an assistant sensai at the academy and had sabotaged may grades while he was there. The worst he had done was made a one Naruto Uzumaki, fail his genin exam twice before he finally graduated a few days ago." Kitsune reported, Hiruzen's eyes got hard when he heard of what Mizuki had done to Naruto, but let Kitsune continue. "The night of the exam, Mizuki was planing to use Naurto Uzumaki's failure to frame the boy after taking the Forbidden scroll that same night, however, since Naruto passed the exam, the traitor had to do it himself. When I caught wind of this, I followed Mizuki into the woods until I caught up with him, we fought for a while, he was somewhat skilled, but he ended up losing the battle. I questioned him on why he did this and what his purpose was, I managed to fine out that he was working with Orochimaru."

 

"What? Why, do you know?" Hiruzen asked, he was a little panicked at hearing that one of his chunin had been working with his traitorous student.

 

Kitsune nodded his head, "hai, he wanted power, power to become the strongest shinobi there ever was. But his view became distorted and warped, so I had to put him down because he was a threat to the village. When that mission was over, I left the village and made my way to the Mizukage where I rejoined my team. We all faught a good battle, but I, along with my teammates, were able to subdue the Mizukage and find out why my help was requested in the first place."

 

"Hm? You mean you didn't know before hand? That's quite odd Kitsune, you usually know just about everything about your missions before he leave to do them," Hiruzen observed. Deer and Boar took a glance at their leader, they too were curious about this fact.

 

Kitsune nodded, unfazed by their curious stares, "I knew enough about the mission to know that I would have been able to handle it well enough, however, I did not know what the reason why the Mizukage would request me pacifically. Although, when I arrived, I was able to see the reason with my own eyes, but then that raised even more questions about the situation and why it was happening."

 

"What do you mean by that?" Hiruzen asked, he was getting intrigued by the story more and more the longer the man (in his perspective since it was a henge) spoke.

 

Deer took that moment to step forward, "Hokage-sama, if I may." He said, Hiruzen nodded, "when Boar and I arrived at the Mizu village, he knew instantly that something was amiss. We looked around and found that there was even more dead bodies laying about now than we had first thought there would be, in fact, this was more...messy that a civil would would have been."

 

Hiruzen nodded his head and thought over what Deer had said, he knew that Kiri was in a civil war, and since the two were connected, then that would be expected. However, how could a place that had come under a civil war for the past two and a half years seem more messy than what a normal civil war would appear? He looked back up at the three ANBU, "in each of your own, honest, opinions, what did the village seem more like to you?"

 

Boar stepped up then, "honestly sir, I think I speak for all three of us when I say that that place looked more like someone was on a killing spree. There were more dead bodies there than I had ever seen before, and they weren't just of ninja of the village. The place was littered with bodies, young and old."

 

"What?" Hiruzen asked, worry on his face, "what are you talking about, a civil war is a war nonetheless. No one walks through a scene like that and not expect to se-"

 

"Excuse me Hokage-sama, but I think the correct word to describe what we all saw there, would be closer to a massacre, or a purge even." Kitsune stated, Hiruzen's eyes landed on him once again, "when I got to the kage tower, I could feel something wasn't right. I knew it when I saw Y-Mizukage-sama fighting against my teammates. It seemed like he was stiff, jerky, like he was being told what to do, where to swing, things of that nature, almost reminding me of a living puppet of sorts."

 

"....How did you resolve the situation?" Hiruzen asked as he leaned back in his chair. Kitsune picked up the explanation again and told Hiruzen what happened while they were still in the Mizukage's tower, it both shocked and amazed the aging kage on what had actually happened. He counted in his head all the facts that he had gathered so far about the mission:

  
1. The Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi, the youngest kage in history, along with Minato Namikaze, and also the rumored host for the Sanbi, was taken over by some mystery figure.

2\. Yagura, while being controlled by this mystery figure, had managed to call out or request help from Kitsune, and Kitsune pacifically.

3\. Upon arriving at the village, it seems that there might have, or still is, some sort of purge going there for some reason.

4\. Since Yagura had no control over his actions, he was forced to attack Kitune and his team until they managed to subdue him and remove the seal from his neck.

5\. Once the seal is removed, a masked figure jumps out and starts fighting with Kitsune while Boar and Deer watch Yagura.

6\. When the fight is over, Kitsune passes out from chakra exhaustion, and has to be cared by Deer all the way back to Konoha.

 

Once Hiruzen got all these facts straightened out in his head, he has questions, the biggest questions running through his head was, "why did you bring the Mizukage with you to the village? And why is he still passed out on my couch even after it's been almost three days since the incident occurred?" 

 

"I checked him over, he seems to be fine for the moment, but I'm not sure when he we wake sir," Deer stated.

 

Hiruzen nodded, he was about to say something, but Kitsun spoke instead, "sir, if I may suggest something." He said, the homage was curious on what it was that the young looking ANBU would suggest and nodded for him to continue, gathering up his own thoughts on how to ask his next question, he nodded his head once. "I would like to request that the Yondime Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi, stay with me....Naruto Uzumaki," he said as he slowly reached up and took off his mask to reveal his face to the Sandime. The shocked look on Hiruzen's face was priceless, Naruto almost wished that he came with his camera, but this wasn't the first time that he had shocked the homage like this, and it sure wont be the last

 

"Well, it seems that the captains revealed himself, I sort of feel left out," Deer drawled laizily with a hint of playfulness. 

 

Boar chuckled, "why don't we join him then?" He said as the two others revealed their faces under their own masks, they all looked at the Sarutobi head and was sure that someone had cast a ice jutsu on their kage, because he was frozen stiff. They almost thought he would start cracking up and break apart in the next second before they saw a colorful array of emotions flash onto his face.

 

"You mean to tell me that after all this time, the worry that I had for you, was so that you can do this? Become an ANBU without me knowing and put your life in danger!" Hiruzen shot out of his seat, the three ANBU, now revealed new genin, started sweating. Hiruzen narrowed his eyes, his KI spilling out and filling the room making the hidden ANBU in the room sweat in their hiding spots as if it was them who set the aged kage off. "I want you three to start explaining how this happened without me knowing, and I promise you, if I don't like you answer, I WILL get you parents involved. Is that understood?" Hiruzen said in a dark voice as his KI kept rising.

 

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" All three said as they straightened and saluted the village leader.

 

**TO BE CONTINUED......**

 


	3. A whole new team experience.

Naruto, the early riser, did not want to get out of bed today. Naruto, the active early bird that always seems to get the worm, did not want to move to turn off his alarm clock when it went off that morning. Naruto, the vibrant sunflower that flows and dances in the sun, did not want to even look out his window today. Naruto, the-"Okay Author-sama, we get it, I don't want to do anything today, can we get on with the chapter now?" The author pouted at the fact that one of her main character's would break the forth wall just to speed up the story, she is now sitting in the corner growing mushrooms while Naruto rolls his eyes at her.  

 

* * *

 

Anyways, after the meeting the the Sundaim Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Naruto had come clean. Shikamaru and Chouji, because of their rank in ANBU, where allowed to hear the truth of Naruto's tail, including the part about the Kyuubi, Kushina and Minato being his parents, and how the villagers treated him after their deaths and the attack. He told them everything from being kicked out of the orphanage, to being beaten up by the villagers, to getting his apartment, and how the villagers would beat him up in his own home when they somewhow found out where he lived, to when he started his first day at the academy and how the teachers there would mess his education. As he come closer and closer to more current times, Shikamaru and Chouji could sense that there was something was about to happen.

 

**Flashback**

 

_"......It wasn't like I couldn't try harder, it's because, even if I did, I would not have been able to show that I tried, because the sensei's would always throw me off course. I wouldn't even have done a prank all day, and they would still find a way to throw me out of the class so I wouldn't be able to learn anything. But the joke was on them, because I was already learning everything I knew from a friend of mine." Naruto explained to the three in the room, he had just gotten to the point when he was in the academy and was telling them about the many times that he was kicked out of the class just because they didn't like him in their class. He was sure that they could tell that he was getting tired of remembering all of this stuff, because he would rather forget all the bad things that happened and try to focus on the good things. This way, he could keep his sanity and feel like he was living up to his parent's expectations._

 

 **"Hay kit, let me take over for a little bit,** **okay?"** _Kirama asked._

 

"Huh? Why? You got something to add?" _Naruto questioned the fox, he had a funny feeling that if he let Kurama take over, they would know that he knew about the fox and talked to him. If they found out, what would they do? Would they call someone to take the Kurama out of him and reseal him into some mean asshole that will not care for the fox as he has? Would they kill him? Naruto didn't know, but to the thoughts alone was making him worry about their future._

 

 _Kurama sighed,_ **"don't worry so much kit, you'll get gray hairs and look like the old geezer before you actually become one."**   _Kurama chuckled when Naruto glared at him in his mind,_ **"anyways, there's something that I want to tell them. I promise that it won't hurt you in anyway, but I will need to let them know about it, because it will affect you later. I also don't want to tell you just yet until I know for sure what it is that will be affecting you, however, I promise to tell you as soon as I know, okay kit?""**

 

 _Naruto mentally pouted,_ "fine, but I want to know the second you do."

 

 **"Deal,"** _Kurama agreed and waited until Naruto gave him control. When the blond gave Kurama the control he asked for, the only way to tell who was in control was with his eye, Naruto's bight baby blues turned into bloody red, when he opened his eyes, he saw everyone present tense and reach of their weapons. **"Whoa, whoa, take it easy you three, I'm not taking over this kit's body to destroy you all, in fact, I think you guys are doing a fine job of that all on your own,"** Kurama stated with a chuckle._

 

_The Sandime stood up and looked at the fox, "what is it that you want, suppose that you don't actually want to destroy the village." Hiruzne's eyes narrowed, "you seem awfully calm apposed to when I expected you to be like, all things considered."_

 

_**"Now, now, old man, you may be age, but I have been around far longer than any of you. I was here in this land before this village was even built, so this makes this place my territory. But enough of this, what I came here to tell you all about, including you two,"** he said turning to Shikamaru and Chouji,  **"that even though I may seem like a monster to you and yours, I am actually the guardian of this land."**_

 

_"Hm? Guardian? You didn't seem to be doing your job when you attacked the village eleven years ago," Shikamaru stated in a board manner._

 

_Kurama rolled his eyes, **"oh, I'm sorry, how old are you?"** He asked, pointing to Shikamaru._

 

_"Twelve, what of it?" Shikamaru asked_

 

 **_"And you?"_ ** _Kurama pointed to Chouji._

 

_"Same as him," Chouji said, "what do our age have do do wit-"_

 

 **_"Well I just thought that since you two said that this attack happened eleven years ago, that you two would at least be, oh I don't know, fifteen, sixteen, or in your twenties maybe. You know, the age group of people who was actually in the heat of battle and knew shit,"_ ** _Kurama state, mildly bitter. **"Now you two shut up, and listen, I'm about to tell you what truly happened all those years ago, and if you don't believe me, then call one of your mindwalkers in here and I'll show you both of our memories. At the same time if you like, that way you can compare notes, how's that sound, hm?"**_

 

_Hiruzen though for a moment, he glanced over at Shikamaru and Chouji, wondering if he should tell them, they were technically ANBU, and would have the ranking to hear this sort of thing. Then again, he didn't want Naruto's own ANBU team to hate him for something that he's not. After a mintue more of thought, Hiruzen turned back to the possessed blond, "fine, I will call for Inoichi Yamanaka, he's the head of the Info gathering center in the T &I department. While he's on the way, you may tell your tail," Hiruzen said as he picked up a phone from his bottom draw and dialed some numbers before talking to someone. He put down the phone and nodded to the Kyuubi/Naruto, "he's on his way," he said as he sat down in his chair._

 

_**"Alright then, so the old man knows most of the story but that was actually just a small piece of it all. I'll start at the beginning. There was once a man named Madara Uchiha, he had been a strong piece of human shit that used his sharingon to control me, then he used me to fight against Hashirama Senju until they got to the 'Valley of the End'. Madra died, and then I was sealed away in Hashirama's wife, Mito Uzumaki, because Hashirama didn't feel as if I should be sealed in a man made construct any more. Mito felt pity for me and wanted to do whatever she could to easy my imprisonment, when it became time for Mito to die, I was not looking forward to my next container, which was Kushina Uzumaki, Mito's grate nice. Kushina had been given to the village as a bargaining tool  because Mito was dying, and you can't lie about that old man, because you yourself know it's true."** Kurama glared at the old man which made said man feel a little more guilty because of what the council's greed,  **"anyways, Kushina came to the village after certain...requirements was meet. She became my new jinturiki, a human vessel for me to stay in until another came along, and they did, but before then, something happened. I noticed that one of the requirements for Kushina to come to this village, was for her to be unable to have any children of her ow, they took that way from her when she was still very young, she didn't even know about it."** Kurama sighed,  **"so I gave her back the gift of motherhood, though, she was happy, she thought that she always had this gift and didn't even find out about it until she was in her mid twenties."**  
_

 

_"You mean you were the reason why Naruto was born in the first place?" Shikamaru asked as he put another piece into the puzzle that was Naruto, his team's caption, Chouji seemed to be connecting the dots on his own._

 

 **_"Yes, now be silent ningen, I'm not done. Yes, I did give Kushina the gift to create life again, as a being made of chakra, and basic life energy, I had the power to grand anyone that ability, even when they are old and frail. I could even do it to men if I wanted to....and since I'm inside of Naruto....."_ ** _He trailed off to let the others figure out what he was getting at._

 

_"But Naruto's not seeing anybody, and he's never been raped, he's only been beaten so far," Chouji chirped._

 

_"Right, if what you say is true, then Naruto could had have his own family with both a male and a female, though..." Shikamaru thought for a second before his eyes became wide. He suddenly had a sharp look in his eyes when he looked back at the fox, "when did it happen?" He asked, confusing the others for a moment before they also got what he was getting at._

 

_Kurama looked down at the ground, **"before that mission to help the Mizukage,"** he took a glance over to the chair where the Mizukage, Yagura, was still passed out since they attack. _

 

_"Ah yea, I would still like to hear the story behind that one, but for now, we'll deal with that later. Please continue," said Hiruzen as he rubbed his temples._

 

 **_"After the graduation exams, if it could even be called that, the pathetic piece of wasted time spent on it made he sick just thinking about it now."_ ** _Kurama grumbled, whispering the last part to himself, but the others still heard it, **"after that farce, he was on his way to the Mizu village, but then he was stopped by these two who had been keeping an eye on the traitor for him. Mazuko, or whatever his name was, was running through the forest until Naruto and I caught up to him. He threw some toxin in the air that made me lose control of our connection for a long while, I'm not sure of all that had happened........or at least I wasn't until I saw his memories."** The air in the room was tense as the story unfold,  **"that man raped my kit, and when I finally regained some control over the link, that teme was still at it it made my blood boil in anger. When we were reconnected, I helped Naruto out of his weakened state and he took revenge on the teme, after wards, I was going to lock away the memory of that night for him...but it seems that he already had."**_

 

_"What do you mean?" Hiruzen asked._

 

_Kurama sighed again, **"for a while now, since he was maybe one or two, other things like this has been happening to him. However the first time he was rapped was when he was one year old, and from that day on, any memory that was too ugly and vial would be locked away by himself in his own mind. I can't even touch them to see how he did it, every time I get too close to those memories, the seal activates and holds me back from that part of his life."** He shook his head,  **"but this time, this time's it's different from before."**_

 

_The room was silent as they all let the information sink in, Naruto hadn't been rapped once, it had happened multiple times. It started when he was so young, and who knows how long it's been going on, if this was to be found out, then there would be more and more attacks like it. Hiruzen was sure that if the council found out about it, they could try to use that to their advantage and even force him to marry Sasuke so that the Uchiha's had the power of the Kyuubi backing them. The two others in the room, Shikamaru and Chouji, came to a similar thought as Hiruzen, "we can't allow the civilian council to know anything about this." Hirzen stated, he looked up at the red eye that replaced the blue ones that was used to, he may not truest Kurama completely. But since he hadn't convince Naruto to destroy Konoha as of yet, or he wasn't able to, either way, it was clear that he cared for Naruto the same as they did and didn't want to see the boy hurt, with that in mind, Hiruzen felt a little safer on letting Kurama stay within Naruto. Now to deal with a bigger issue, he didn't think that he would ever have to ask this question to Naruto so soon, nor did he think he would ask it about the boy himself, but he had to know as much about it as possible. "How far along is he?"_

 

_Kurama thought back on the many times Naruto had been rapped this year alone, he frowned deeply as he had been attacked more often this year than others. Not to mention the rape attacks were steadily going up, this year, it was scary to think that his kid had already been rapped twice this year already. The rape by Mizuki making the third. Kurama clenched his fingers into fist, "Hiruzen, I want you to place Naruto under clan protection, that way, those teme's can't touch my kit without getting severely punished soon after."_

 

_The other's were a little taken aback by this, " h-ha-has it really been that bad?"Shikamaru hesitantly asked._

 

_Kurama turned burning red eyes towards the Nara, it made the genius flinch in response, **"I wouldn't be asking is it wasn't,** **now would I?"**_

 

_The other's looked at each other, "S-Shikamaru, I don't know if I can take him in my clan, because of the attack. Buuut," Chouji looked at Shikamaruk ,his best friend, he had known him for a while and he knew that he himself could tell that is parent's were having problems in their relationship. Maybe more so now, since Shikaku was smart, he could tell that Shikamaru was leaving behind a shadow clone and Yoshino, Shikamaru's mom, is only just starting to nice it as well. They fight about it constantly now, and after two years of it, they were reaching their breaking points, and shit was starting to hit the fan fast and messy. Shikamaru knew this all too well, he even saw his day once with divorce papers that were still unsigned, because of that, Shikamaru stayed over at Chouji's house more than they were kids._

 

_Shikamaru knew where Chouji was going with this, he didn't want to admit it until he saw his mom or his dad or both sign the papers and go their own ways. He questioned himself sometimes on which parent he would want to go with if that were to happen. His mom was pain most of the time, not just some ties, it was like she had PMS or something, but the last time he checked, his parents married young and that wouldn't happen until maybe another decade. His dad was alright, he didn't have any complaints about him, but he knew that the house wouldn't be the same same without his mom there. He wasn't sure on how this change would affect him, but he knew that it would probably let his dad worry less about coming come and getting a concussion from a frying that hit him a little to hard in the head that would need a concoction of drugs to regulate and manage. He worried and thought about it so much that he was stressing himself out. he sighed, a trend that seemed to be going around the room now, "this is troublesome, he's having a hard time enough as it was, and to add this on to his late, it's a drag to think about it."_

 

_Kurama folded his arms in front of him, **"a clan filled with geniuses, lazy ones at that, well at least they should come around sooner than the rest."** He leaned on the wall behind him,  **"since you were the first to offer it, we might as well take it, this kit will need it soon."**_

 

_"Kyuubi....um, I don't mean to be nose or anything, but is Naruto, you know...."' Chouji asked looked down at the blond boy's body, noticing how small he actually was without his henge and genjutsu up around him._

 

_Kurama nodded sadly, **"sadly to say, he is, and he's already about a month and three weeks along."**_

 

_"WHAAAATTT!!" All three screamed._

 

_"How could this have happened, when did t happen?" Hiruzen shot off._

 

_Shikamaru stepped up, he couldn't believe what a kid of his own age group had already been going through, and to add this onto it, it was insane. He was angry, no, he was pissed off, "who did?" He asked darkly._

 

_Kurama shook his head, **"sorry, but that's a no no, and you wouldn't believe me if I told you. But in the mean time, just get the papers ready so that Naruto co=an be protected by the Nara's,"** Kurama then did a familar hand sign and was surrounded by swirling fire before he disappeared. _

 

_"No wait!" Chouji said, but it was already to late, his shoulders slumped, he turned to his friend and their Sandime, "what now?"_

 

_Hiruzen held his head in his hands, "the only thing I can do is see about his request." He looked at the other two. "listen, I want this to be kept as a SSSS-rank secret, if anyone finds out about this some how, and they are not willing to help in anyway possible, kill them on the spot. We cannot let Naruto suffer more than he already has, however, I will allow for you to tell someone of this, but only with Naruto's and Kyuubi's permission, Understood?"_

 

_"Hai!" The duo replied on reflex._

 

_Hiruzen nodded, "dismissed, except for Shikamaru, I would like to have a few words with you about this new arrangement," Shikamaru nodded while Chouji shushined out of the office._

 

 **Flashback end**

 

When Kurama told him most of what was said and what happened after, Naruto wasn't sure he wanted to face his teammates today. It's been roughly four or so says since the...incident, the one that he locked away in the very back of his mindscape, and since then, he's been feeling off. It took them almost two days to get back to the village, including the half day that Naruto spent passed out from the fight. He didn't understand it, but he's been feeling really tired since that day with Mizuki, be he dusted it aside as exhaustion, seeing as how he's never spent all night beating up someone, after dispelling a toxin out of his own body. Then proceeded to run top speed to another nation's hidden village, then fight and restrain a kage, who was being used as a puppet, while removing a SS-rank Uzumaki seal. Since a SS-rank Uzumaki seal is higher than a regular SS-ranked one. Fight a possible S-rank criminal before putting up AA-rank seal to keep the crumbling building from falling on his friends, just minutes before he finally passed out. And after all that, it took him a day to fight for contentiousness so he could lead his team back home, because what kind of team leader would he be if he took more than half a day's rest to be back to normal? Anyways, he guided them all back home, allowing Shikamaru and Chouji to rest for a a few hours, before they made it back to the front gates and he teleport-ed them all all to the Hokage office to give a report, before coming back to his apartment to take care of Yagura's injuries. Speaking of Yagura, after Naruto arrived at his apartment, Kurama was still in control until he closed the door. Naruto took back control of his body and placed a few health seals on Yagura's body before falling into his bed. The health seals were one of Naruto's inventions, the seal would gather up any toxins, drugs, or parasite within a the body and suck it into the seal, while the seal itself would turn into a balloon. From there, all Naruto had to do was place the balloon over a fire and turn whatever was inside it into a poison that he could use later in combat, he cleverly called the process recycling. 

 

 **"Hay kit, get up, you've got to do that recycling thing with Yagura before the seals you put on him get too full."** Kurama yawned in his mindscape,  **"also, you're already about an hour late for school."**

 

"Oh joy, school, I still have to go to that thing? Ugh," Naruto said in a annoyed voice, "I swear, keeping this mask up is starting t become a grate pain in the as. Maybe I should drop it after all," he said as he struggled to get out of bed, his body was killing, because aching just wasn't cutting it. His arms felt like rubber, his legs were like noodles, his head felt like a bowling ball on on a toothpick, and his back, well his back felt like someone had been standing on it for three days, and that person was not light. Yet he still got up and trudged over to the couch that he left Yagura laying on that night and got to work."

 

* * *

 

**After the process**

 

Naruto finished by pouring his new batch of poison into a clear jar, the poison took on a foggy purple shad that could only mean that this batch would be lethal. Naruto smiled at his work and went to go get ready for school, even though he didn't want to and he was sure that the school day was already half done. Still, he needed to go to see what team he was landed on, it was going to be a pain, but since he was the dobe of the class, he was sure to be placed on a team with Sasuke, who managed to keep the titel of rookie of the year since he got into the academy. Today's outfit was a lose fighting robe, much like the third's robe, but Naruto's only went down past his knees, he had black leggings underneath that matched his shoes, on the back of his outfit was the Uzumaki symbol that was embroidered into the fabric by hand. Naruto wore fingerless gloves in black, and had a red obi around his midsection that was about four to five inches wide, he finished the look off by adding red coloring on his eyelids (think of the orange he gets around his eyes when he's in sage mode). Now that he was finally ready, he might as well head to school, he held up a hand sign and shushinned into the classroom.

 

* * *

**Ten minutes earlier-academy**

 

Iruka was just about to read off the names for team seven when suddenly, a ANBU shushinned into the class room. This took Iruka by surprise, "yes, what is it?" Iruka said.

 

The ANBU, who wore a cat mask, walked over to Iruka and whispered in his ear so that only he could hear what she had to say.  _"Hokage same made some changes in the teams. He wanted me to deliver them to you before the other teams were called and bigger confusion was made,"_ she whispered.

 

 _"What?"_ Iruka whispered back so only she could hear,  _"what do you mean there's been a change?"_

 

 _"It's like I said,"_   said Neko-san, she took out an envelope from one of her pockets and handed it to the scared chunin,  _"here is the new list of names for the new teams. I wish you good luck,"_ she stepped back from Iruka and shushinned away in a swirl of leaves.

 

Iruka wondered for a moment why she would wish him luck, he opened the envelope he was given and read the names, he then looked back at the list he had before the ANBU appeared. He looked between the list and his shoulders slumped, this was not going to be easy to get through, but he had a job to do, and he was going to get it done. He cleared his throat and looked up at the class, "alright everyone, I was just handed a new list of teams," he saw the confused looks on everyone's face, some looked hopeful. "First, I must announce that all the teams that I called before will remain the same and the teams that I haven't called yet will be the new teams, I will also call out the old list so you can see the difference in them. First up, team seven, it was going to be Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, and Naruto Uzumaki-"

 

An ear piercing scream filled the room and everyone already knew that it was Sakura, "take that Ino-pig! True love concourses all!" She screamed at the Yamanaka heiress behind her, which wasn't necessary since the girl was sitting directly behind the pink bit-I mean Sakura.

 

Iruka's eyebrow twitched at the pinkette's antics, "SAKURA! If you haven't noticed, I said that this was the old team, please sit down so I can finish!" The pink banshee was embarrassed and sat down without another word, "team eight would have been Shino Abarame, Kiba Inuzuka, and Hinata Hyuuga. Team ten would have been; Shikamaru Nara, Chouji Akamichi, and Ino Yamanaka." Iruka held up the new team list, "now then, the new teams will consist of team seven, including: Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, and Ino Yamanaka, them eight is now: Shino Abarame, Kiba Inuzuka, and Chouji Akamichi. Team ten will include, Naruto Uzumaki, Hinata Hyuuga, Shikamaru Nara, and an extra team member, Sai, plus. Team ten will also have a joint team member by the name of Rock Lee, that's it for the new teams, any questions?" He asked, knowing that he shouldn't have.

 

"HELL YEAH I GOT A QUESTION, WHY THE HELL DO WE HAVE TO HAVE A FAT ASS ON OUR TEAM!" KIba yelled

 

"Why does that dobe get a team, I thought he failed the exams!" Ino yelled

 

"For get that, WHY DOES THAT BAKE GET A BIGGER TEAM THAT MY SASUKE-KUN!" Screamed Sakura, "AND A JOINT TEAM MEMBER! IT ISN'T FAIR!!"

 

"YEAH!!" Yelled the other fan girls.

 

"Sasuke-kun should get the bigger team so that he could get more missions because he's the best!" Yelled out a random fangirl that has no name because no one cares to name them in the canon.

 

"I bet he cheated to get into the academy anyways, why did they allow him in when he's nothing but a bake dobe!" Yelled another random fangirl without a name.

 

Just then someone cleared their throat, "well it seems that I was wrong about the team placements this year, huh?" Everyone turned to the source of the voice to find Naruto standing at the back of the room, his face was an emotionless painting of 'I don't a fuck'. The fan girls got angry, but before they could attack him, Naruto shushinned himself to the open seat next to Shikamaru and Chouji, "he turned to them, "what did I miss?"

 

"Oh nothing much, just that there was a little change in the teams," Shikamaru said with a tired voice.

 

"What could have changed to cause all this noise?" Naruto asked.

 

"They're just made because you and Shika got placed on a five man team, including a joint team member," Chouji said between munching on his endless bag of chips.

 

"Hm, interesting...." Naruto said as he looked about the class, "did I get anyone good besides you Shikamaru?"

 

"Yeah, you got-" Shikamaru was interrupted by a certain pink haired fan girl.

 

"HAY, STOP TALKING ABOUT IT SO CASUALLY AND ANSWER US! WHY DID YOU MAKE THIS TEAM AND NOT MY SASUKE-KUN?!?!!" Screamed Sakura so loud that Naruto and Kiba had to cover their over sensitive ears, Kiba because of his bloodline, and Naruto because of Kurama.

 

When Sakura was done, Naruto put down his hands a little, "you must have me mistaken for the Sandime Hokage, Sakura, I don't make the teams. In fact, the Hokage is the one that gets the final say when it comes to picking teams, you should now that, because it was on the genin exams that we took not too long ago. Isn't that right, Iruka sensei?" Naruto asked as he turned to Iruka, his face just as emotionless as when he came in.

 

Iruka folded up the two list as the kids talked, he was about to leave the class room when Naruto called out to him, he turned to see the class watching him. His shoulders slumped again, "yes, Naruto, that was actually the first question in fact, an easy one for those who needed any extra credit on their test," he turned to face the rest of the class. "Actually, some of you got that question wrong, which seemed amazing to me since we live in the leaf and can see that the Hokage has a final say on everything ninja related," he shook his head at the, "in all honestly, all I can say to you all is, good luck passing the genin test, you're going to need it." With that, he opened the class room door as all the other kids in the room stared at him in shock.

 

"W-what's he mean why, 'pass the genin test'?" Asked Sakura, "I thought that we already passed the exams," she had a panicked look on her face, as did the other civilian kids.

 

"Huh? Really, you guys didn't honestly think that this would be the easy way to get into shinobi life, right?" Naruto asked then, "I mean, that test alone would have guaranteed  death for most of you, and that was if you managed to make a single clone for the test."

 

"That is very logical thinking of you, Naruto-san, I must say that I'm quite impressed. Usually you do not show such intelligence to bluntly," Shino stated as he walked over to the blond.

 

"Well you could say that I decided to change a bit," Naruto smiled a little, it was a tired smile, Shino noticed, as did some of the others.

 

"HAY, STOP ACTING LIKE SASUKE-KUN, DOBE/BAKA!" Yelled Sakura and Ino at the same time.

 

Naruto looked at the two fan girls, "who would want to act like that teme? He's nothing but an avenger who can't even wall up a tree without hands, let alone on water, if you ask me, he's nothing more than a below average shell of his clan," he said waving them off.

 

This comment was met with Sasuke slaming his hands on his desk and getting up from his seat, everyone turned to him except Naruto who was now laying back in his seat with his eyes closed. "What did you say about my clan, dobe?" Sasuke growled at the blond, who did nothing in reply but yawn, a tickmark came over his eye brown and he marched over to the blond, a sea of students parted to make way for him to pass. The fan girls cheered him on and couldn't wait to see 'their Sasuke-kun' show the 'dobe' of the class a thing or two. Sasuke stood next to Naruto, his hands clenched into a ball, "answer me dobe, I'm better than you, if you have something to say, then say it to my face. Well? Answer to your superior!" Sasuke all but yelled just before he reached out and grabbed Naruto by the collar, which was a pour move on his part, because Naruto had made his own outfits by hand, he didn't like it when people touched him and ended up ripping or tearing his clothes in the process. 

 

Naruto reached up slowly and placed his hands around Sasuke's wrist, his eyes was still closed, not because he was trying to relax and get rid of a pounding headache. No, no, no, Naruto's headache had already exploded when Sasuke started yelling about how he was better. Naruto did not like it when people would tell him how better they were than him, especially kids his own age who always got what they wanted and he got nothing, but he wasn't bitter about that, because he could get what he wanted on his own. He's been doing it since he was six, since no one wanted to care for him, he cared for himself, and that was the way it always been. Now, some spoiled brat was trying to unload their petty insecurities on him? Wellllll....this is where Naruto decided that enough was enough and he was going to but the Uchiha in his place, but without showing off too much, after all, it was still early in the morning. "Sasuke, you and I both know that you do not have the sharingon, and even if you did awaken it, I will not let you just beat me up as if this was a game of darts, where I'm your target. No, it doesn't work out that way, and if it did, then that would just be a fantasy," Naruto opened his eyes to show ice cold eyes with mercy, "maybe, just this once....I'll show you a thing or two?"

 

"Yeah right, as if you co-" Sasuke cringed when Naruto tightened hi gripe around his wrist, it was hard not focus on anything else. The pain was intense, Sasuke tried to remove his wrist, but Naruto's grip only got tighter and tighter, "let go of me dobe.....I said let go!"

 

"LET GO OF SASUKE-KUN, YOU'RE HURTING HIM!" Screamed the demon, Sakura, the fan girls agreeing very loudly with her.

 

"But if the Uchiha was all that great, then he could get out of this without you all trying to help him out. No one is helping me when I do this, so why is it so had for him to get away from the 'dobe's' hold?" Naruto mocked as his grip got tighter still, he could feel that Sasuke's wrist was about to break, another second and it would be unfix-able, he would get blamed for that, and he would get blamed for just touching the Uchiha....he got blamed for everything, Naruto let go of Sasuke hand after one last squeeze caused a small snapping sound to be heard by him under all the noise. He didn't care thought, he'd suffered worse than just a broken wrist in the past, Sasuke would get over it, eventually, and if he didn't, then he was likely just another day in Konoha, where he was the cause to everyone pain. Even when he had nothing to do with the person,  _"_ _this village, it's got a sickness in it that I don't like. I'll get rid of it though, if I feel like it, that is,"_ he thought as he got up from his seat. He walked passed Sasuke as the Uchiha held his wrist and tired to act tough, but Naruto knew he was crying kn the inside,  _"what a baby, I though you were stronger than this, Sasuke, what a shame."_

 

 _"Sasuke-kun,"_ Sakura, along with the other fan girls, were fretting over the Uchiha, when Sakura saw Naruto walked down the steps, she got angry. "Hold it right there baka," she said as she chased after him down the stares, he was walking slow enough that she got in front of him before he reached the last step, "where do you think you're going? Apologies to Sasuke-kun right now!" 

 

Naruto just stared her down before side stepping her, she saw what he was doing and stepped in his way, "move please, it's lunch time and I'm leaving."

 

"Not until you apologies to Sasuke-kun, you-you-YOU DEMON!" Sakura yelled, wanting to hurt him as much as he had hurt her crush. Her plan worked, that did hurt Naruto, but not because she called him a demon, it was because she wasn't strong enough to fight on her own. She memorized stuff and that was grate, she managed to have excellent chakra control, and that's great, for her. But what about he skills? She didn't have a one, the only thing she had any skill in is studying and chara control, because of her small stores. Now she was trying to get in his way because the supposed best student in class couldn't defend himself against the supposed dobe, Naruto couldn't help but laugh. Sakura didn't like that, "WHAT'S SO FUNNY, BAKA DEMON? I SAID APOL-"  _Slap......THUD._

 

The sound echoed though out the room, silencing any and all noise, Naruto had slapped Sakura, in the face, hard, and she spun around twice before falling on the ground, equally as hard. The room was so quite as they watched the spot that Sakura ha been standing just second ago,"when you grow a back bone, then you can talk to me, but I don't take orders from anyone but the Hokage." Naruto continued walking down the steps, his hair shadowing his face, he stepped ever the fallen pinkette, who seemed to be holding back tears caused by her red and soon-to-be swollen cheek, he walked to the door, opened it, and walked out. He ignored the stars that followed his back, he didn't answer the call of Asuma when he asked 'hay kid, aren't you supposed to be waiting inside?', He didn't look up to see the questioning look in Kurani's eyes as he passed her as well, he was tired and he hadn't even been at the academy for more than half an hour already

 

Meanwhile, Asuma and Kurani walked into the room to call their respective teams, only to be faced with the sight of a frozen student. One of which happened to be down on the ground, as if she had been thrown half way across the room. "Whoa, what the hell happened in here?" Asuma asked more to himself.

 

"I don't know, but we'll find out sooner or later," Kureni answered, "team eight," she called.

 

"Whatever," Asuma shrugged, "team seven," he called.

 

Both teams shook themselves and left the room, with Ino helping Sakura get back up to her feet, and Sasuke still holding his broken wrist,

 

Both jonin instructors thinking to themselves,  _"what the hell happened to them?"_

 

 

 

 

 

 

**TO BE CONTINUED.........**


	4. Team Blaze

Naruto was sitting under a tree with his eyes close, he didn't know how long he had been sitting there, but it was long enough for him to calm down. His little episode from earlier was now melted away by the calm, cool breeze that blew through the trees. The sun was shining bring up in the sky, it was honestly the most peace that the blond was able to have in months, he was in bliss....Until a certain pineapple head walked over and started saying stuff like, "you know...if you sleep out here like that, you'll get a crick in you neck."

 

A twitch of his eyebrow and blond was ready to curs, but that cool breeze blew by again and he let it go. "Shikamaru, what are you doing here?" Naruto asked, as he readjusted himself in his spot.

 

Shikamaru sat next to the blond without answering his question, "what was that? Back in the classroom, I mean, you never get so angry to the point that you brake someone's wrist...well, someone that wasn't an enemy of the village anyways."

 

"Hahaha, sure, you may thing he's just going to stay loyal to the village when he's like that, ha! Get real Shikamaru, you know, and I know, that Uchiha's crave power. Not that there's anything wrong with wanting to get stronger, but the way he's doing it is almost as if he want people to just hand him whatever he wants on a silver plate. It's disgusting," Naruto spat as he glared out at the village, they were sitting on a hill close to the outskirts of town. It was just out of the way enough that someone that was looking for him, say a civilian, wouldn't think to have come out this far to find him, it was smart, and the only people that knew of his little spot was Chouji and Shikamaru.

 

"Ah, I think you mean a  _gold_ plate, silver would not be good enough for the  _last_ Uchiha to be served with," Shikamaru chimed with a hint of sarcasm. 

 

Naruto shrugged, "eh, whatever, so, who's your friend?" He asked, he had already sensed the timid girl walking with his ANBU subordinate, it was hard to miss her when she was not used to hiding her chakra from others yet. "She seems a little cozy behind that pine tree, but I would rather not have any eavesdroppers today, thank you," he heard the small 'eep' come from the girl when he mentioned her whereabouts.

 

Shikamaru chuckled, "you might as well come on out, Hinata," he said looking behind him.

 

Behind one of the trees, a head of midnight blue hair pocked out and lavender eyes could be seen, after a few seconds hesitation, Hinata Hyuuga come from behind the tree. The shy Hyuuga timidly made her way over to the two boys, all the while pocking her fingers together and looking down. "U-u-uh, h-hi, S-Shikamaru-k-kun, N-N-Naruto-k-kun," she stuttered while her face got red when she was trying to say the blond's name.

 

Naruto glanced up at her and smiled kindly, "why don't you sit down Hinata? Enjoy the breeze, it's a beautiful day to be out with friends."

 

Hinata nodded and sat down next to Shikamaru, said Nara was laying back on the tree behind him. Naruto was looking out at the village for a few minutes before laying back to look up at the clouds, it really was a beautiful day. Hinata was tense, this was the first time that her crush had noticed her, and it was the first time that he had invited her to hang out with him and his friend, she was so giddy about that thought that she almost forgot what they came here for. "O-oh, right, w-we were s-supposed to be m-meeting our other teammates s-soon," Hinata said earning the slight snoring of Naruto and a yawn from Shikamaru.

 

"Right, we should go Caption, the other's must be waiting for us right now," Shikamaru said as he got up and stretched, not realizing that he slipped up on calling Naruto caption just now.

 

"C-caption?" HInata asked.

 

"Oh, it's what I call him sometimes, just like he calls me nicknames sometimes too," Shikamaru effortlessly lied, he was an ANBU after all, it was second nature by now.

 

Naruto stretched and hopped up to his feet, "fight, let's go Shika-chan! Hina-chan! Our team awaits!" He said as he matched away from the two.

 

"Shika-chan? Really dud? Not cool," Shikamaru said as he followed behind his caption lazily. 

 

"H-H-H-H-Hin-na-ch-ch-chan?" Hinata said as her face turned all the way red, so red that a tomato would be jelly, she just about fainted, if it wasn't for someone catching her. She turned to see who it was and turned more red, if possible, to see Shikamaru's sly smile.

 

"Come on, we got to meet the other's so don't faint just yet, okay?" Shikamaru said, Hinata could only nod numbly as she followed behind them,  _"has Shikamaru always been that hot? He kind of looked like his father for a few second there, Ah! What am I thinking?! I like Naruto-kun, why am I thinking about Shikamaru in that way?"_ She shook her head to get rid of those thoughts before running after her two teammates to catch up.

 

* * *

 

**At the Academy**

 

Naruto, Shikamaru, and Hinata managed to make it back to the academy after fifteen minutes, since the spot they were at was very close to the edge of the village. Luckily Naruto, if you could actually say that, has been chased around the village so much that he had managed to made the potential one hour and a half trip into a fifteen minute trip back to the school. Now that they had made it back to the building, they could meet the rest of their team and their team leader, Naruto was hoping that it wasn't that Lazy copycat ninja, Kakashi Hatake. While Naruto was younger and just starting out in the ANBU, he had been placed on a team with Kakashi, let's just say that he could only stay on that team for so long before he blew his top and attacked Kakashi for being late all the time. The copy ninja, since then, had made sure to avoid the Kitsune mask wearing ANBU whenever he could. Naruto also hoped that it wasn't that taijutsu expert, Mito Gai, he's got no problems with the guy, don't get him wrong, he though Gai was grate at what he did, but there were some days that he couldn't stand loud noises or people and on those days, Mito Gai should stay very, very far away from him. Another person he wished not to be under the leadership of, was Anko, he heard the news of her becoming a takubetsu jonin and was terrified, not that she could be his jonin sensei, but at the fact that if she did, he would snap and go head to head with the crazy snake lady for months on end in an all out spar. In that case, the whole village would be in danger and the fighting would not be limited to just the training fields.  _"All though that would be fun to see who would make it out alive, me or the snake lady, the destruction would be hell to pay and all, but it would be well worth it to kick ass and let loose,"_ Naruto though with a happy smile on his face. It was a smile that meant that he was thinking of way to destroy things during a fight without being blamed for braking stuff on purpose, Shikamaru knew that Naruto was planning something and hoped it wasn't too destructive. All though he, Shikamaru, now knew that Naruto and Kitsune was one and the same, he couldn't help but compare the two, one thing that he noted was the same about the two was their aura. While Kitsune's aura was calm and demanding, but still kind and gentle, Naruto's aura was more of a...broken cup? He didn't know how to explain it, but he could sense that the blond was kind of missing a screw in a few places now that he wasn't hiding behind a mask, figuratively and literally. 

 

When the trio walked back into the room, they found that it was just about empty, the only people in there was a pail kid that Naruto recognized as Sai. Naruto knew Sai because Donzo had taken the blond under his wing when he was still new to the ANBU life. He learned many things under the war hawk, one of the things that he learned was that Donzo's way of training his ROOT ninja's was completely wrong and would only cause them to die sooner and get lesser missions done, even though it would be a higher mission number than regular shinobi's get, it wouldn't be the highest that it could be. Anyways, more on that later, the next person in the room was a carbon copy of Mito Gai, Naruto suspected that this kid was the Rock Lee that he heard Gai took under his wing last year. Last but not let was a guy that Naruto didn't quite recognized, well that is until the guy turned around. "Captain Yamato, what are you doing here?" Naruto asked the older man.

 

The man, now known as Yamato, turned to the blond and blinked. It seemed that he was expecting to see someone else, other than the blond and the other half of the team he was supposed to be leading. Yamato couldn't shake the feeling that he knew the blond some how, but shrugged it off for later thought, "are you three Naruto Uzumaki, Shikamaru Nara, and Hinata Hyuuga? The remaining members of this team?" Yamato asked stepping toward the three new arrivals.  

 

"Yeah, I guess that's us, Shikamaru Nara, new member of team ten, reporting for duty," the Nara said with a lazy salute.

 

Yamato looked at him slightly puzzled until he realized what he was saying, "oh, no, no. Actually, when I was given this team assignment, I was told that this team would be called 'Team Blaze', not team ten." Yamato scratched his cheek when the Nara gave him a puzzled look, "uh, yeah, I was confused about that name too, but it was Sandime-sama who named this team, so who am I to judge." Yamato then cleared his throat, alright, since it seems that almost everyone is here, we might as well head on up to the roof to start introducing our selves," he said and held up his hand in a sign, "I'll meet you all up there in five," then he shushined away in a swirl of leaves.

 

Naruto looked about the room, "Sai, grab on to Lee, Shikamaru, you take Hinata, let's get going," he said and shushinned up to the roof in a swirl of fire.

 

"May, isn't he a bossy one, he seems to remind me of my master in a way," Sai mused as he got up from his seat and walked over to Lee who had been doing push ups since he got to the school.

 

Lee Had stopped doing his push ups when Sai appeared next to him, "oh, sorry, are we leaving?" He asked.

 

Sai nodded with his fake smile, "yes, I am to take you up to the roof with me," he said and place a hand on Lee's shoulder, "let's go." They disappeared in a puddle of ink that soon faded away into the ground as if it was never there to begin with.

 

"And that just leaves us," Shikamaru turned to Hinata, he placed a hand on her shoulder and shushinned them to the roof in a swirl of leaves like Yamato.

 

* * *

**On the roof**

 

As Yamato waited for his student to arrive, he couldn't help but wonder why the Sandime had choose him and Shikaku to manage this team. Even though Shikaku wasn't here right now, since there was an issue that he needed to take care of with the Sandime before he came here, the two had gotten the news together. To say that they were both shocked would have been an understatement. Shikaku had questioned why the Sandime would put a jonin/ANBU commander on a team with his own son, plus a team made up of five new genin, one of which that is already on a team, and two jonin sensei was unheard of, Yamato was thinking along the same lines. Then Hiruzen explained that this would be more like a trial run, and experiment if you will, to see if such a team would improve or disprove a theory that he had been having for a little while now. Being curious on what the theory was, they asked and found it to be an interesting one, Yamato was nervous about having a team like this, and Shikaku didn't seem too comfortable with the idea either. Yet since it was it was an assignment by their kage, they accepted it none the less. 

 

"Yo, Cap, you okay?" Naruto yelled at the wood user to get his attention, they had all arrived two minutes ago to find their new jonin sensei deep in thought. They waited for him to notice them, but Naruto was getting impatient and called out to the man. Said man was startled out of whatever thoughts he had been having and looked at the group before him, Naruto raised an eye brow, "well?"

 

"Oh, um, yes, right well how about we-" Yamato was cut off by someone shushinning into existence next to him. The person turned out to be his missing pardner for the team, "Shikaku-san nice of you to join us, would you like to introduces yourself to the group? We've just started."

 

"Huh? What?" Shikaku looked at the group of new genin and saw his son, "oh, uhm, sure okay..." he said slowly. It was clear to see that he was a little shake up by something, and he was. You see, Shikaku had just gotten some rather odd and out there new from their kage just now.....

 

**Flashback**

 

_"Shikaku, Yamato, I want you two to lead a new team of genin that I put together for this graduating class," Hiruzen said to his two subordinates. "This team is a new team that I would like to test out, as well as some other teams that I would like to test out as well. I thought, this year, since we tried the Ino-Shika-Cho trio previously, I would like to try another team that would be similar to that, and to also test a theory of mine."_

 

_"Sandime-sama, if you don't mind me asking," Shikaku stepped forth, "what is this theory that you would like to test out? And also, why would you choose me to lead a team of genin, when I am already a jonin and ANBU commander?"_

 

_Hiruzen smiled, "I would expect that question from you Shikaku-san, so let me ask you this: Have you ever had a team that was one part tracker, one part tactical advising, one part heavy hitter, one part escape artist, and one part recon expert?"_

 

_"Well, no, actually, we've never had anything like that," Yamato said realizing what the Sandime was saying._

 

_Shikaku though about their village history, "in fact, all of our teams had been centered around one pacific thing. Team eight had always been around tracking, with at least one Inuzuka, one Abarame, and a Hyuuga involved. Team seven was always a balanced team, with  the top two students of the class, the rookie and konoichi of the year, along with the dobe of that year. And team ten would be the brains and bronze, the Ino-Shika-Cho team, but...." he looked at the Hokage, "how are you planning to change that up without it back firing?"_

 

_"Well it took me a while to think about it and I had to look at the teams that I already finalized on. However I was thinking that since Chouji is more of the heavy hitter type for the Ino-Shika-Cho, and Kiba was also trained to be a heavy hitter along with being a tracker, they could complement each other in battle. Chouji could distract, Kiba would strike, and then Shino, being the and Abarame would do recon while look for opening in the enemies defense so he could tell his team. For team seven, I thought that it would be unfair to put the dobe with the two best, I thought that it would even things out, but I have seen many fights break out within the team because of it. Though they may get along at time, when the time calls for it, one or both the top students would complain about the dobe in their group and would either ask for him/her to be removed, or would train him/her the best they could while on the same team. Since I didn't want Naruto to go through the damage that Sakura would put on him, and I certainly did not want to hear the council while about how he was dragging down Sasuke, I replaced him with Ino." Hiruzen explained._

 

_"But Hoage-sama, how would putting those two on the same team be useful?" Yamato asked, "from what I have heard of Sakura Haruno, she is skilled in chakra control and knows a lot about the ninja arts, and Ino is skilled in most of her clan jutsu. I am not sure how they would work out."_

 

_"Same here, Hokage-sama, I'm not sure I see the logic in tha one either," Shikaku agreed._

 

_Hiruzen sighed, "I know, I know, that was, by far, the hardest group to come up with. However, Since Ino comes from a ninja clan, and Sakura is knowledgeable on most things, I thought that they would feed off of each other and soon come to see that their petty rivalry was pointless. Ino would sooner or late snap out of her fangirl state and will focuse more on the ninja arts, while Sakura will probably follow her lead at some point and drop her fan girl mind set."_

 

_Shikaku thought about it and was only seeing Ino snapping out of her fan girl state, so he asked, "what of the Uchiha? I though he would go to the copy ninja."_

_Hiruzen sighed, "ah, yes, I've thought about it, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Kakashi, even though he's made a name for himself as Sharingone Kakashi, the man that knows over a hundred, maybe even a thousand jutsus, he's still....eh, how do I say this? Um, Stuck in the past? Yes that's it, it' s said that you can't move forward by only looking back, you know, and that's all Kakashi seems to be doing now a days."  He explained to them as he took out his pipe and started smoking, "as for Sasuke, I though that putting him with someone different would help, Asuma might just be able to wipe them into shape yet, as will Kurani with her's."_

 

_Both ninja looked at each other and nodded their agreement of the statement, even though they both knew the Hatake in different lights, they knew that he was stuck in the past. "Alright then, what about this new team, who's on it and what are they going to do?" Shikaku asked._

 

_"Glade you asked, well, as you may or may not know, your son, Shikamaru, is on this new team. He will do tactical advising for the team, Hinata will track and locate thanks to her Byakugon, and Lee, from Gai's team, will  be the heavy hitter." Hiruzen took a puff on his pipe before continuing, "Sai, a recommendation, will distract, while Naruto will do recon and info gathering, maybe even a little of everything if the situation called for it. Hmm, in fact, why don't you two teach them all how two do each other's job, in a case of emergence when that person is unable to do their job, someone will need to step up."_

 

_"Wow, that's really well thought out, I'm impressed," Yamato found himself saying._

 

_Hiruzen chuckled, "what? Are you saying that an old geezer like me can't come up with some well thought out teams now that I'm getting older?"_

 

_Yamato panicked, "no, no, no, no, no, Hokage-sama, it's just that I-I"_

 

_Hiruzen chuckled again, "relax, Yamato, it's quit alright. Now, you better get going, the other sensei's would have picked up their teams already, you don't want to be late for your first day with your teams, now would you? Dismissed."_

 

_"Hai! Hokage-sama!" Yamato and Shikaku said._

 

_Yamato shushinned away quickly in a swirl of leaves, but when Shikaku was about to do the same, Hiruzen held him back. "Hold on Shikaku, I have something important that I need to ask of you before you go, if you don't mind," he said in a serious tone._

 

_Shikaku looked at the kage and nodded his head, "what is it, Hokage-sama?"_

 

_Hiruzen puffed on his pipe for a moment as he gathered his thoughts, he sighed, "Shikaku, I don't mean to butt into your personal affairs, however, I was wondering.....What is the state of you marriage these days?"_

 

_Shikaku was a little caught off guard by the question, he was a little uncomfortable talking about his person life while working, but since his kage asked, he was inclined to answer. "It's-it's not looking so good," Shikaku managed to say, "I...I'm not sure how much longer I can keep it together with her, I know that all clan heads must be married to stay in power of the clan, less they be replaced by other member of the clan, however, it's always been my family responsibility to be in charge of the clan, dating back to the start of it. However, the elders are willing to give me until the end of the following year to find someone to replace Yoshino if we ever, you know," he looked down at the ground, "ti's already so troublesome."_

 

_Hiruzen nodded, "I see....." he said as he puffed on his pipe once more, "hm, Shikaku, what if I was to give you a way to solve this problem? It might be a little...troublesome to start, but you would be helping out someone in need, as well as helping out yourself in the process. Besides, this person could really use help with their problem as well, what would you say?"_

 

_Shikaku looked at the Sandime as if he had frown a second head, then he got a thoughtful look on his face, "what kind of trouble is this person in?"_

 

_"Hmm, you could say that it's very troublesome and this person does not deserve to be in such a situation the first place," Hirzen stated._

 

_The Nara head raised an eye brow, "how would we be able to help each other? How different are our problems?"_

 

_"They are not so different, and they can both be solved in the same way. Two different problems, one solution to fix them both, then gain, you are more than free to decline of you wish," offered the third._

 

_Shikaku folded his arms in front of him as he thought, "who is this person?"_

 

_Hiruzen paused, "how about I give you some time to think it over, hm? I cannot, in good contuse, tell you their problem and their identity, not unless you agree."_

 

 _Shikaku frowned as he thought,_ "the Sandime's up to something, I'm not sure I like it, but then again, my situation at home is starting to get rocky real fast. If I don't cut ties with Yoshino soon, then she's find someway to get me into an early grave, and I don't want that. My only choice is to get divorced and remarry sometime after, but also within a years time of the divorce, that's not a whole lot of time. But if I accept this offer, then I could kill two bird with one stone. Though I have a problem with not knowing what troublesome situation this other person is in, I would not mind helping them as long as they don't me. If our problems are not so different, then that means that this other person is also have problems in their person lives and needs to get married as soon as possible to fix it, just like me. If that's so, then what would I be getting myself into? I know I like both sexes, but I do draw the line at certain things, then again, I don't want my son to live with the Akamichi's the rest of his life because of Yoshino and her decisions."  _Shikaku's frown deepened the more he thought, until he finally said, "fine, I suppose that I can help this person out."_

 

_"Excellent," Hiruzen seemed to breath a sigh of relief, something that did not go unnoticed by the Nara head._

 

_"Question, who's this person you want to help and what problem are they going through that would may you suggest their hand to me?"_

 

_Hiruzen chuckled a little, "no worries, you will find out who the person is shortly, in fact, you will be meeting them soon anyways, so there's no need for me to tell you their name as of yet. However," his smile dropped here, "they have been though tough times, tougher than anyone their age should have. They've been pushed around and gone though so much hard ship that it's a wonder how they stay so strong....As for their problem, welll," he looked up at Shikaku with a sad smile, "they were rapped a few months ago and I fear that the council will force them to marry an unfavorable person. I was asked to place them in a clan for their protection, so when I got wind of your situation, I was hoping that we could work something out."_

 

_"......I would still like to know who I just signed up to marry, if you don't mind," Shikaku stated._

 

_Hiruzen gave him an innocent smile, "look into the eyes of your genin and find the sky with storming clouds filled with sorrow of plenty. Then match those eyes to the age of angels, that's when you'll know. Dismissed."_

 

**Flashback end**

 

Shikaku had left the office after that and locked onto Yamato's chakra signature. He had shushinned to the roof, still in thinking about the Sandime's words, he saw his son look at him with something in his eyes that he could almost call, guilt? What would he have to feel guilty for? Then he heard Yamato say something about introductions and cleared his throat, "right, I'm Shikaku Nara, clan head of the Nara's. I am also a ANBU and Jonin commander, my likes are cloud watching and sleeping, I hate paper worker and being yelled at for no reason. My hobbies are cloud watching, drinking with my friends, sleeping, and training with my friends. My dream is to have my son take over our clan when I retire."

 

""Alright, I'm Yamato, I like training, and walking threw the forest, I dislike it when people hurt those weaker than them and people wrongly accuse others. My hobbies include training, cleaning, and gardening. My dream is to make this team successful."

 

"YOSH! My name is Rock Lee and like training with my youthful sensei, Gai sensei! My dislikes are when unyouthful people tell others that they can not follow their dream, and when other's hurt my friends! IT IS MOST UNYOUTHFUL!! My hobbies are traning with Gui sensei and my fellow youthful teammates! My dream, IS TO BECOME A SPLENDID NINJA EVEN THOUGH I CANNOT DO NINJUTSU OR GENJUTSU, I WILL BECOME A GRATE TAIJUTSU LIKE MY SENSEI, OR EVEN BETTER!!"

.

.

.

.

.

"Okay, now that we all have our hearing back," Yamato said as he wiggled his pinkie in one of his ear gently to make sure that it was still working properly. "You next," he pointed to the person who had been sitting next to Lee, as the taijutsu student had been sent to do one thousand pull ups on a tree that slightly hung over the side of the roof.

 

"My name is Sai, I like painting, drawing, and training under my master. I do not sure what I dislike as of this time, and I suppose that my hobbies are the first things that I mentioned. As for my dream, mmmm....I don't have one," everyone sweat dropped at this answer before the next person went.

 

"M-my name i-is H-Hinata H-Hyuuga, I-I like p-pressing f-flowers, t-t-training, and c-cinnamon buns. I d-dislike the way my f-family treats t-the branch members, a-and I-I h-hate w-when people bully o-others for no r-reason other than to g-get pleasure from other's p-pain. My hobbies include g-guarding, training, r-reading and learning n-new t-things. M-my d-dream i-is....my dream is to unite my family."

 

As she spoke, the other's couldn't help but notice that she stopped stuttering when she talked bout her dream. "Alright, last but not lest," Yamato said as they all turned towards Naruto."

 

"Names Naruto, likes are training, reading, pranking, and learning and creating new jutsu. My hobbies are training, creating new jutsus, and testing my trap making skills, disguising them as pranks, as well as my escaping skills on the villagers, " Naruto couldn't help but to chuckle at that part. While the others were in awe of his ingenious way of training himself in trap making and evasion skills, Yamato making a mental note to see if Naruto would help train the others in his arts, even though he was sure they would get quite a few complaint about it. "My dream is...hmmm, well I also don't really have one, oh well."

 

"Alright soun-wait a minute, did you just say that you don't have a dream?" Yamato asked taken aback by the statement, he was told that Naruto's dream was to become Hokage and that he loved ramen to the point it was an obsession. Was the information that he was given wrong?

 

"Yeah, I know I've always said that I want to be Hokage so that I could get some respect, but I don't see how anyone would respect me if I did. Being Hokage, if I would quote Shika-chan, is troublesome. Honestly, I see the old man doing a mountain of paper work every time I see him, and I see him often enough that I have my own chair and corner there. Another thing, he could just use shadow clones to do all that work, but yet he doesn't, I don't know why though," Naruto finished with a small smirk on his face.

 

Just then everyone heard a faint  _"DIE PAPER, DIE!!"_ Coming from the direction of the kage tower, they all turned back to the sound of Naruto laughing his ass off, not wanting to think about it too much, they let both noise slide. For now. "Ahem, so now that we've gotten to know each other, let's meet up at training ground six at nine for the genin test," stated Yamato.

 

"U-uhm, Y-Yamato-s-sensei?" Hinata said timidly, Naruto almost thought she was going to say something like 'I though we already did that test' or something, but he was wrong, never judge a book by it's cover. "W-what would w-we be r-required to b-bring and do for the t-test t-tomorrow?"

 

"Oh, I don't think about that," Yamato thought to himself, now that he thought about it, he wasn't and Shikaku were going to test them on tomorrow.

 

Shikaku saw the indecision on Yamato's face and spoke up, "just bring two kuni, each of you, better yet, make it four. Some rope would be handy too, water, a first aid kit, and, what the hell? Why not a sleeping back, you'll need it, get there early if you can, and don't even think about eating, that's an order," Shikaku said with a sternness in his voice. "When you get to the grounds tomorrow, I want you all to tell each other one thing about each other that you would never tell anyone else. I want you all to remember what that thing is, and who said what, it may just save your lives, since that's all, go home and get some rest, we'll see you bright and early tomorrow morning," then he disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

 

Yamato shrugged, "what he said," then left the same way.

 

Naruto looked at the others, "is anybody else hungry? We should make sure that we get to know each other better for the test tomorrow and nothing helps with that more than food!" The blond cheered.

 

"Yosh! You can count me in, Naruto-san!" Lee said appearing next to the blond, sweat pouring down his face from his work out.

 

"Uh sure, but first, maybe we should hit the bathhouse first?" Shikamaru suggested.

 

Naruto thought for a moment and then snapped his fingers, "I know the perfect place."

 

* * *

**Bathhouse**

 

The Sugar Sweets, a newly opened bathhouse, was meant for people of a certain age group to enter. Fifteen or older, no exceptions. However, if you were a ninja, then they would allow you to enter under condition that you don't cause any trouble with the other guest while you are there. The Sugar Sweet opened it's doors only a short two months ago, but has only had a handful of people enter it's walls. This bathhouse was the only one of it's kind, why? Because, since regular bathhouses let both genders have their own sections, this bathhouse only had one for both, which made it slightly less popular among the masses. Also the fact that it was located near the red light district was also not favorable to most. No one needed to mention that they served alcohol, because the conversation about the place would usually be over by that point. Since the news of it spread, not a lot of people went to it, most know of it and it's location, but not a lot wanted to actually go to check the place out for themselves.

 

Yet Naruto thought that this was the perfect place to take his new teammates to hang out before they all went home to get ready for the test tomorrow....

 

As Shikamaru looked about the place he couldn't help but ask, "Naruto, are you sure that this place is actually a bathhouse, and not something else?"

 

Naruto looked at the Nara for a moment, he shrugged, "yeah, they have an open air bath section and everything else you would find at a bathhouse," the blond explained. "Besides, we don't even have to go home to get our stuff afterwards, because this place also has lots of rooms to sleep in at night, plus a small restaurant inside. What more could you ask for?" Naruto walked over to the door and opened it wide to allow everyone walk through.

 

Shikamaru sweat dropped at the blond's casualness about the new bathhouse. Though he was curious on what this place had to offer service wise, he was worried about this feeling he got in the pit of his stomach that something bad might happen if they entered  _and_ spend the night here. "Troublesome, I'm not sure about this, but it would be a drag to go looking for something better right now," he sighed as he adjusted his bag on his shoulder and walked through the front door of the questionable establishment. 

 

Sai followed Shikamaru's lead as he added his two cents, "Naruto, if you don't mind me asking, isn't it customary for both genders to have their own section of the bathhouse?"

 

"Yes, I was wondering the same thing," Lee said curiously, "I have never been to a bathhouse such as this before." He explained as he followed the others inside, "every bathhouse in Konoha, and even in the other villages that I've been to on missions, all have two sections. From what I have heard of this place, it only has one, where will Hinata go to cleanse her flames of youth?" Hinata couldn't add to the conversation because her face was beet red and her eyes were glued to the ground. They had already been in front of the building by the time Naruto had explained why he had chosen this particular bathhouse for them to use, instead of the others around the village. When she heard that this place catered mainly to mixed bathing, she had lost her voice, lost in her thoughts of how she was the only girl on the team. She was a little surprised that Naruto would choose a place like this for them in the first place, it made her wonder, and that was when her thoughts carried her way into wild, erotic fantasies that can't be talked about without first having age restrictions.

 

Meanwhile, while Hinata was stuck in her own head, Naruto was already at the front desk signing everyone in, under a fake names just in case. "Okay guys, if anyone asks, Lee is Asuma, Shikamaru is Kakashi, Sai is Itachi, Hinata is Anko, and I am Tsunade," the blond explained.

 

"Question, why am I Kakashi? I look nothing like him," Shikamaru said.

 

"Who is this, Anko person?" Sai asked, "I'm not sure that I've heard of her before."

 

"T-that's one of the new jonin's this year, or that's what I heard when my tou-sama was complaining about her, it seems that she's a bit..." Hinata said, finally coming back to reality, but she had no idea how to explain Anko personality to Sai.

 

"Why are we using other people's name, are we supposed to be here?" Lee asked, he gasped, "is this place some sort of unyouthful place where evil things happen!?"

 

Naruto cleared his throat, "no, not exactly...evil, anyways, when the owners come over to give us our stuff, say that we're all under henge so that our reputations as shinobi aren't tarnished. By saying that, we'll not be found out and this wont lead back to us, any questions?"

 

"Yeah, what's the point of coming in here if we're just going to be using other people's identities? Identities that don't even match us with who we really are," Shikamaru asked.

 

"A couple reasons, one; if we're adults, we get to drink and stay the night at a lower cost. Two; by using other people's identities, it will count towards our training, since a ninja should be able to blend in anywhere and become a shadow. If you think about it, blending into our surroundings also means that we would have to go under cover and become a whole new person in order to complete a mission." Naruto explained to the group, seeming to catch all their attention with the brilliancy of the explanation, "and three; it could also boost your confidence, by doing this exercise here and now, it would be the first step to our upcoming training."

 

"Wow, Naruto, you just sounded like a full fledged caption just now," Sai exclaimed with the slightest hint of excitement in his voice.

 

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck, "well I had time to think of a way to explain coming here in a reasonable way, other than what I was going to say before."

 

"Oh? What youthful explanation were you going to tell us before?" Lee asked, the others slightly curious as well.

 

"That I wanted to boost Hinata's confidence by letting her bath with us," Naruto blurted out with a goofy smile just as the owners came up to the front desk.

 

Hinata turned red once more, Lee covered his ears as if he was trying to forget Naruto's 'unyouthful' words, while Shikamaru smacked Naruto on the head. Sai was neutral, "hello everyone," said the owners, getting the groups attention, "how may we help you today?" 

 

Everyone looked at the owners and could not help but notice their large....assets. The owners were women that looked to be in their late teens to early twenties, they also seemed to be twins. One had long, dark brown hair that was tied up in a pony tail, and the other had jet black hair, both had light brown eyes. The one with dark brown hair was looking over the list with their (fake) names on it, as well as other things that was written down next to each name. While her sister was doing that, the one with jet black hair talked to the group. Naruto nodded as he recovered from Shikamaru's hit, "yes, we would all like to take a bath and have dinner before retiring for the night," he stated.

 

"Hmm, is that so, huh?" Asked the girl with dark brown hair, "seems like you five are a pretty interesting bunch, ne? Why don't you tell us the real reason you guys are here?"

 

The one with the jet black heir turned to her twin, "Milly, please, we just got new customer's, can't you at least act like you want to make our business grow?"

 

The woman, now known as Milly, turned to her twin, "ah geez, I would sis, but these  _kids_ think that I'm buying their story." She stated as she looked at the group of new graduates, Hinata was red still and wanting to disappear, Lee seemed seconds away from slamming himself on the floor to repeatedly apologies to the owns. Shikamaru seemed uncomfortable under the dark haired woman's gaze, Sai and Naruto were the only ones with a good poker face, Milly 'humph' at the other two. "I bet these guys are just kids trying to slip through and do some pervy stuff in our baths, you know how kids their age can be."

 

The girl with jet black hair sighed, "and then they could just be newly graduated ninja that found out about our business and wanted to see what it was like first hand instead of listening to the rumors about it and us." She sighed heavily before turning back to the group, "I'm sorry about that, but could you guys remove any henge that you may be under? You can put it back up when you're done, it's just so that my sister can see that you guys aren't so bad."

 

Naruto sweat dropped,  _"well this is not what I was expecting,"_ he thought. "Actually, we're not under henge, I signed us up under fake names so that we don't get caught coming here," he explained. The twins looked puzzled, "look, the truth is, we're new graduates from the academy and our sensei's are testing us tomorrow, but he told us to meet him bright and early tomorrow."

 

Shikamaru sweat dropped again, "since you know that, why are we spending the night here and not at our own homes?"

 

Naruto didn't look back at the Nara, the twins were also curious about that as well, "um, kid, are you right in the head or something? Your teammate has a pretty good point," said Milly.

 

Naruto nodded once, "yes, I know, but there's also another reason why I wanted to come here."

 

"Oh yeah? And what's that?" Milly asked.

 

Meanwhile, Milly's sister looked at the five kids in turn, her eyes stopping on Naruto last, "follow me," she said and started walking away.

 

"What!?" Milly said, shocked by her twin, she was even more shocked when Naruto started following her. She saw the boy with the pineapple head follow the blond, with the other's soon following after them as well. Not wanting to feel left out, Milly followed the others into the restaurant section of their business.

 

* * *

**Later that same night....**

 

"Okays, gather around, we've got to start planing for tomorrow's test," Naruto said after they had finished talking with Milly and her twin sister, who they came to know as Marry. After they talked, Milly and Marry got them food and left to prepare the rooms they would be staying in tonight. Everyone was pretty much full on the awesome food that was serve and wanted to take a bath, but then remembered that it was a mixed bath and they weren't ready to get so close on the first day.

 

"That sounds good," Shikamaru said stretching his muscles, "what's the plan?"

 

Naruto stood up from the table, "first, lets take a bath," he said and walked away from them, ignoring their red faces. Well Sai's face still had a blank look on it, if you look close enough, you could see the slight tint of red on his cheeks.

 

"Naruto-san! Please tell us the plan anywhere else but there! Hinata-san-" Lee started but was cut off by the blond.

 

"Hinata's apart of this team as well, Lee," Naruto paused in the restaurant's exit. "What would happen if we are on a mission, and anyone of us had to dress Hinata's wounds because she couldn't do it herself? Would you be able to save her life when you're like this?" 

 

The room was silent for a while, until Milly walked back into the room, "ah geez, I though you guys were ninja? Back in my day, teams would go out long missions and didn't have a choice on when and where they could bath, they just took what they could get." She said as she rubbed the back of her head, "if this is such a problem for ya, then just don't look."

 

"Don't look? What about building a barrier or something? That might be why people aren't coming to this place because of the damn bath!" Shikamaru stated.

 

Milly gave him a board expression in return, "well we would have, but we ran out of materials to do that, gaki. We wanted this place to look more like one of those exotic baths, like in Rome and other places, but our budget was cut a month into building."

 

"Y-you c-could h-have a-at l-least p-put u-up s-some t-type o-of c-c-curtain o-or s-something," Hinata said as she pushed her fingers together, not looking at anyone.

 

Milly thought for a moment, "yeah, that's an idea, but you guys haven't even seen the bath yet, so you can't really say what we could or could not have done about it." She walked out the restaurant exit, "come on, I'll show you where it is!" She yelled over her shoulder, Naruto and Sai were already following her, the other three were a bit hesitant at first, but followed none the less. They walked into a large open air bath, it might have even been the largest open air bath that they had ever seen in their lives. The bath was about as large as an Olympic swimming pool with fake rocks placed around the edge, with some big ones placed here and there in the middle of the bath, giving it a natural look. There were some trees placed along the walls with it's branches coming down covering most of the wall in some places, behind some of the lower hanging branches seemed to be something else. They could see stools stacked up in varying points around the larger than life bath, some shower heads were placed next to the door they were standing in, which happened to be large french, twin doors. Milly pointed towards the tree branches that seemed to be hiding something, "that over there is were most of the showers are, they're sectioned off so that if the person next to you is the opposite gender and all that, they wont see you while you rinse off." She pointed to the shower heads next to the door, "these are for cooling off after the bath."

 

"Why would you need to cool off after a bath?" Shikamaru asked.

 

Milly smirked creepily at the Nara boy, "why don't you get in and find out?" Shikamaru inched away from her, "anyway, there are soups and shit all over the place, just look in the rocks. Have a nice bath," she turned and walked away from them, leaving a creepy laugh in her wake.

 

The others watched as she went away before Naruto drew their attention, "okay, who's ready to bath?"

 

"YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!!!" The rest yelled at the blond as he walked more into the bathhouse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**To be continued......................**

 

 


	5. The mission test and the visitors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy new year everyone!!!!

Before dinner, Naruto had talked to Marry and Milly about new business ideas that would surely make their business take of in no time, in exchange, his team would use their business as a basic of operations whenever they needed to talk in private. That night, when they all finally got into the bath, Naruto presented an idea to them, "since Shikaku sensei wanted us to share secrets for the test tomorrow, then I suggest we get everything out in the open right here and now." Stated the blond jinturiki, everyone looked at him as if he was sporting a second head, "listen, I know that this is hard for you guys to do, but we need to do this. Who knows what he's going to ask about us tomorrow, so we have to know enough about each other that we can put our test in each other."

 

Shikamaru gulped, he didn't think that Naruto would say something like this, but then again, he had been his commanding office, unknowingly so, for the past two years already. He should have seen this coming, and he actually did, but it still unsettled him at the idea. What's worse is that Naruto was staring straight at him, which was making the other's look from the blond to him, wondering what was doing on Shikamaru knew that he would not win a staring contest with the blond and relented, "fine, I guess I'll go."

 

Naruto gave him a bright smile, "that's the spirit Shika-chan, now tell us something about you that no one else knows." 

 

Shikamaru pouted, "troublesome blond," he knew what the jinturiki meant by that and was in no way wanting to upset the blond, so he thought about his answer before saying it.  _"Okay, what don't everyone know about me? I takes naps, watch clouds, they know my clan, what we can do, and it's well known that our clan are geniuses that marry troublesome woman. Yet what do everyone know about me? Hmm...."_

 

"How about this? You can start out with facts that everyone knows, and then slowly ease your way into things that not everyone know about you," Naruto chimed, interrupting his thoughts. 

 

Shikamaru pout grew deeper, "you're enjoying this, aren't you?"

 

"A little bit, yeah," the blond replied, "now start before we all boil." True to his word, Naruto had asked Milly and Marry to make the water hot to create steam, and then keep making the warmer to encourage the others to talk. He had put a seal around the bath so that no one could leave until their secrets spilled to each other. However, he didn't tell the other's anything more about the steam part being for Hinata. Right now there was a pretty good steam flowing around the room, but the others would soon notice the rising temperature of the water. "Think of it like another intro," he encouraged.

 

"Whatever, I like naps and watching clouds, I'm allergic to nuts, and....." at this point, Shikamaru grew a little red and he looked down to the water, "I'm gay."

 

Naruto nodded, he had known about Shikamaru for a while, but he wanted the other boy to accept it on his own, so he didn't say anything. "That's good, no one is judging you here, alright?" Shikamaru didn't look up at the blond, still too embarrassed about the little confession, he hadn't even told his parents yet, and he hid it well around them, especially his dad. "Alight, who wants to go next?"

 

Lee raised his hand, a determined look in his eyes, Naruto nodded for him to talk, "I find it very youthful for Shikamaru to confess this way, I can say that it was gave me the confidence to come out as well!" He stated and took a deep breath in, he let it out slowly, "I....am also attracted to the both sex, and I am also allergic to fish and bees."

 

Sai spoke next, "I don't know who I'm attacked to, nor what I'm allergic to, however, I should say that I find it enlightening to draw other's in the nude."

 

No one knew what to say about that, so they moved on, "okay, Hina-chan, would you like to go next, or should I?"

 

Hinata sunk into the water a little until the water came up to just under her mouth, "I-I-I c-could g-go." She stuttered, "I....I-I like you, Naruto-kun," she said with her eyes closed, she didn't hear anything form the others so she opened her eyes after a while.

 

Shikamaru scratched the side of his cheek, "uhm, Hinata, sorry to burst your bubble, but we sorta already figured that one out."

 

"What!" Hinata all but shouted as her face become red again,  _"was I being that obvious?"_ She thought.

 

Naruto chuckled, "yeah, I kinda found out sometime after I saved you from those bullies when we were little remember?" He asked her, which made her blush even harder, "and besides, I kinda like you too, maybe not as much, but know knows? We could probably work something out," he paused and looked at the first two that confessed earlier, he raised an eye brow at them, "unless someone else is after my heart."

 

Shikamaru blushed a slightly, "oh come on man! I confess and now you're making fun of me!" He said as Hinata seemed to sink even deeper into the water until only her eyes could be seen, standing out from her red face.

 

The blond giggled, "relax Shi-ka-chaaan," he sang Shikamaru's name to emphasize his point, "I actually like both boy's and girls, life's too short to not try it all, don't you think so, Lee?"

 

Lee nodded, "YOSH! LET US LIVE OUR YOUTHFUL LIVES TO THE FULLEST!!!!" He yelled standing up with his fist in the hair.

 

Sai couldn't help but to stare at the usual green clad ninja that was a year older than them. Even though there was a lot of steam in the room to cover most things, the steam was mainly towards the water, so if some stood up....."Wow, and here I though that you would be tiny," she stated in his usual way of stating things that was on his mind.

 

Lee looked at Sai with a questioning look, as did everyone else, but then Hinata turned her head a little towards the right. Hinata was shot back with a stream of blood coming from her nose, Naruto was able to catch her before she hit the water, "Hina-chan, what's wrong?" He asked, Hinata tried to talk, but found that she couldn't form the wards, so she pointed to the thing that made her nose bleed, Naruto followed her finger with his eyes and they almost bulged out of his head, "I'm going to have to agree with Sai on that one."

 

"Same here," Shikamaru stated as he looked at Lee's....tools.

 

Lee was puzzled, he wasn't sure why everyone was looking at him, he looked down at what they were looking at, "oh. Is there something wrong with it? I though everyone's was that big."

 

"Not everyone," Naruto stated

 

* * *

 

**The next day-training ground six**

 

 

Naruto, Shikamaru, Sai, Lee, and Hinata were sitting around early that morning talking. The sun was almost all the way in the sky and the birds was starting to since. The remembered what Shikaku had told them the day before: 

 

  _Shikaku saw the indecision on Yamato's face and spoke up, "just bring two kuni, each of you, better yet, make it four. Some rope would be handy too, water, a first aid kit, and, what the hell? Why not a sleeping back, you'll need it, get there early if you can, and don't even think about eating, that's an order," Shikaku said with a sternness in his voice. "When you get to the grounds tomorrow, I want you all to tell each other one thing about each other that you would never tell anyone else. I want you all to remember what that thing is, and who said what, it may just save your lives, since that's all, go home and get some rest, we'll see you bright and early tomorrow morning," then he disappeared in a swirl of leaves._

 

Since they had rooms at The Sweet Suits that night, they didn't have to worry too much about getting up early to get everything ready, since they packed before going to the bathhouse/restaurant/inn. They had their weapons ready and they each had rope by their side, their sleeping bags were next to each of them. Since they were actually ordered, not suggest, not to eat breakfast, they were all a bit hungry that morning. As a small rumbling sound was heard from each of their bellies, Shikaku and Yamato entered the field, right on time. "Well, it seems that they know how to follow some orders," Shikaku stated as he set down his rather large back pack, "did you guys tell each other one thing about each other?" 

 

Naruto and the others stood at attention when the two sensei arrived, "yes, we found out about each other before you arrived," Naruto reported.

 

"That's good to hear," Yamato said, happy that his team seemed to be getting along right from the start, he couldn't begin to imagine what it would be like if they didn't. "Okay, Shikaku-san and I had discussed the test yesterday after we left and came to an agreement on the rules," he informed.

 

Shikamaru looked at his father and Yamato, "you mean that this test is troublesome enough that you two disagreed on ruling?" Shikaku nodded his head, "tch, what a drag."

 

Shikaku couldn't help but chuckle at his son's antics, "alright, alright, that's enough talking for now, let's get to the test. I want Naaruto and Lee to go hid in the east part of the wood that surround the village, and I want Shikamaru and Sai to do the same in the south part. Hinata, you will be on your own, for this test, I want you to go to the market and pick up an order for me, here's the details for it," he said handing the Hyuuga a slip of paper.

"Um, excuse me sir, but what would splitting us up do? Isn't a team supposed to stick together?" Lee asked.

 

"Hai, that's right, a team is meant to stick together through thick and thing. However, what if your team is on a mission and they get separated? You would need a way to notify the other's of your whereabouts and get help if needed. This test will cover that, as well as how well you guys handle yourselves on your own, together, and how you use your skills to to tack and plan." Yamato explained.

 

"When you guys get to your locations, there will be a map that you guys will need to find by the end of the day. If you can't find it by nightfall or before this time tomorrow, you get sent back to the academy," Shikaku explained.

 

"What will we be doing with the maps we find?" Sai asked.

 

"There will be an 'X' on the map, you follow it to the point and bring back what you find, if none of you can do that, then you will go back to the academy. You have a little over three days to bring back the item on the map," Yamato explained.

 

"What about food?" Naruto asked, "most of us haven't been outside of the village, so not all of us will know where to find food and water. Also, this test is much longer than what I thought it would be, I thought we would only have a certain amount of hours to do this. Why make it so long?"

 

Shikaku smirked, "that's because of a little surprise that I've set up for the five of you, I can't tell you what it is, since you'll find out so enough. Plus, this will be a good chance to test your survival skills and teamwork, along with other skills that you may or may not be able to bring to the table. I am going to give you guys one hour to get to the locations on the papers that Yamato is handing out to you right now, if you don't make it to that location and start the test  when I give the signal, you will be left behind." He waited until everyone got a paper with a location on it before continuing, he placed his hand on the bag h st down, "any other tools you may need before starting the test will be found in this bag, take what you want and leave the rest. Once the test starts, you will not be allowed do do anything other than focus on the task at hand."

 

"If anyone gets hurt and can not continue on with the test, please shoot of one of the flair guns that we've given you in this bag. You get three flares, one is red, and one is green, and the lat one will be yellow, the green tells us that you have the item found on the map. The yellow lets the others know that you need help from them and will come as soon as possible, and the last one is to let us know that you give up." Yamato said happily, he was looking forward to seeing how they do, "please keep in mind that we will be watching you all through the test, so try your best."

 

"One more thing," Shikaku said before the genin could search the bag for things that they may need. "There have been some reports about rabid animals in the area that Naruto's and Sai's team will be in, and one or two reports about bandits lurking around there as well. Please be careful while your out there, it would be troublesome to explain to your parent's and guardians why you're so banged up at the end of this, good luck." He went up in smoke, followed by Yamato, leaving the genin to themselves to start the test.

 

Naruto shrugged and started looking through the back and found a campus with his flare and two radios. Sai got his flare gun and a scroll that he thought was regular paper, he thought that it would be useful for his Supper Best Scroll technique. Shikamaru found a pocket knife and his flare gun, along with a third radio. Lee took out some numb chucks and his own flare gun, along with a lighter, the only one in the bag. Lastly, Hinata took out her flare gun, a book about poisonous plants, berries, and bugs, as well as the last item in the bag that seemed to be a whip of some sort that seemed to be different from a regular one. "Hm, looks like that's about it," Naruto stated as he looked at everyone's weapons, "Hina-chan, why don't you take the bag with you, just in case."

 

"O-okay, b-but wouldn't i-it slow me d-down l-later?" Hinata asked as she put her items back into the bag.

 

"It might, but then again, we don't know what Shikaku sensei's got up his sleeves, and we don't know what he ordered. The bag is big enough hold a lot, it would be better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it," Naruto explained calmly.

 

Hinata nodded and placed the bag on her back, Lee spoke up then, "YOSH, LET US SHOW OUR NEW SENSEI'S WHAT WE ARE MADE OUT OF! WE WILL LET THEM SEE HOW BRIGHT OUR FLAMES OF YOUTH SHALL SHINE!!!" 

 

"I have a feeling that Lee won't be needing his flare gun to get a hold of us," Shikamaru scratched the back of his head, "troublesome."

 

"....Make sure you guys hold onto your flare guns," Naruto stated.

 

"You really thing we'll need them?" Sai asked.

 

"Who knows, but we all know that teams can't work solo missions by themselves, at least not until their chunin level." The blond then handed one of the radio's to Hinata for her to have with her, he checked his to make sure it works, "well, it looks like we're all connected now." He looked up at them, "there's no time to wast, the signal could come at any time, let's get going. I want to see what they have waiting for us," Naruto said and jumped into the trees, soon followed by Lee.

 

"Good luck guys! My your flames of youth burn bright!" Lee yelled back to them as he disappeared from view. 

 

"As impatient as always," Shikamaru said turning to the south, "come on Sai, see ya around Hinata," he said and took off as well.

 

"Good luck on your end, Hinata," Sai said as he followed Shikamaru's lead.

 

Hinata nodded to the pail boy and started off toward the market, "good luck to you guys too," she took off running until she was also out of the clearing of the field.

 

Once they were all gone, Shikaku and Yamato jumped down from a near by tree, "well that went well," Shikaku stated.

 

"Shikaku-san, if you don't mind me asking, why did you lie about the rabid animals, and the bandits in when you were explaining things?" Yamato asked, "I haven't heard of those reports."

 

"Yeah, well the animal part may not have been true, but the bandit part sure was," Shikaku said casually.

 

"What! You let them go off with bandits roaming about without training? That's already a C maybe a B ranked mission depending on the bandits! How could you do such a thing, your son's on the this team for kami's sake!" Yamato stress, getting ready to take off towards the Hokage's tower, "I need to tel-"

 

"Would you relax, the Hokage already know about this, and he made sure to have other ninja stationed near the spot where the bandits were said to be last." Shikaku said, "ah, before you start asking more questions, let me explain. Sandime-sama wanted them to know what it was like to be out of the village on a mission before the mess around in traning not knowing what they could be getting into. This way, they would see what things are like during a real mission and their training will hopefully improve because of it, which is once of the reason for this team."

 

"I thought that the reason for this team was to have them represent the village and show the difference between them and the other teams. Is that no longer the objective?" Yamato asked.

 

"Yes, that's part of the equation, but yesterday, Sandime-sama had gotten a call from a close friend of his. They are interested in this new team idea, it was something that seemed to be looking for, so the two of them talked and worked somethings out last night. He had time to call me up this morning before I left to tell me the news, I guess you weren't available at the time to get the message or what, but it seems that our team will be the first of it's kind."

 

"What do you mean by that? What's our new objective?" 

 

Shikaku smirked, "I hate repeating myself, so you're just going to have to wait until they're done with this test to hear about it."

 

Yamato raised an eye brow, "who's to say that they will pass, what with all the bandits and the difficulty level of their task?"

 

"Who's to say they wont? Have a little faith, Yamato, they deserve at lest some," Shikaku then turned from the ex-ANBU agent and left the training field. Yamato didn't have anything more to say to Shikaku, seeing he was gone and all, but still, his questions about the test was raising a few red flags. Not enough to say, stop the test completely, but it was enough to wonder, are these kids being prepped to take on high ranking missions right out the gate?

 

* * *

**With Hinata**

 

Hinata arrived at the place that Shikaku had written down on the paper, she went inside and got the person at the counter to get the order that she was told to get. Hinata was puzzled by what the package could have been, when the person came back with the order, she crossed of anything small on her list, since the page she was handed was large. It wasn't to large, but it was big enough that she was glade to have taken the bag like Naruto had suggested, she put the package, which was a large box, into her bag and left the store after thanking the person for their help. She was just about to head off to the forest, since that was supposed to be her next stop, when someone jumped down from the roof of the building, "hay there little girl, mind letting me have a look see in your bag? It'd only be a minute," said the person with a bright smile. Hinata was frozen for a moment before remembering what the note written below the directions from Shikaku had said:  _"Don't let anyone see what's inside until Foxy give the word, play it cool til then"._   She had not known what it meant at the time of reading it, but now she did, though the person named  _Foxy_ was drawing a blank in her head.

 

"I'm sorry, but you must have the wrong person," Hinata said calmly, trying to make it seem that he actually did have the wrong person. For all she knew, he did, she started to walk away from him.

 

Yet the man did not let her move from the spot in front of the door, "my apologies love, but he's going to be quite pissed of at me if I don't get that package you've got in your bag. I promise, no harm will come to such a fair maiden as yourself. Now, if you please, hand over the package so we may both be on our marry way," he said with his hand out.

 

Hinata looked at the man with curious eyes, she was sure that he was speaking Japanese, but at the same time, she could hear another accent in his voice that made it slightly hard to understand the man. He spoke well enough, but he was not from around the elemental nations, "ano, a-are you n-not from around here?" She asked the man.

 

Said man did not answer her right away, and her question went ignored when he spoke again, "the package, please, it must be terribly heavy for you. I could take it off you hands and no harm will come to you, I promise," he said, his smile forced.

 

Hinata knew that this man was somehow apart of the test, but she wasn't sure how far he was allowed to go. She didn't want to test their limits too much, as that would be problematic, so she had only one way out, she though about lying again, but the look on his face was not going to let her. So her next thoughts were a little jumbled, she didn't know who she would get out of something like this, until she saw a bird flying by over the roof of a near by building, that's when it came to her. "Replacement jutsu!" she did the had sign's so many times before while she was practicing, she wanted to make sure that she passed the exams to become a genin, so now she was able to do the jutsu one handed. The man's face was a mix of shock and surprised when he saw Hinata disappear with his very own eyes, and was replaced by a dove that kept frying even after the change in sense. The bird gave no fucks as it almost flew right into the man's right eye.

 

"What d'ell!" He cursed and looked around for the girl before catching a glimpse of her running across the roof tops almost to the edge of the market place, "damn that wench!" He cursed again, just before Hinata jumped down and disappeared into the crowd, the man took out a radio and spoke into,  _"calling all units, calling all units, the girl is on the move, I repeat, she is on the move. All available units be prepared to peruse, she has the package."_

 

He waited for a second before the radio crackled to life,  _"roger that sir, Eagle is on the move, I repeat, I am on the move."_

 

 

* * *

**With Sai and Shikamaru**

 

Shikamaru and Sai has made it to the location that they were meant to be at and already started to look for the map that Shikaku had hid there. It had been almost five minutes of looking, and they had yet to find anything as of yet. Shikamaru decided to take a more logical approach to their search and got into his famous thinking pose,  _"now, if I was tou-san, where would I put the map to throw off the subject?"_   He thought as Sai watched him, he was confused by the lazy boy's actions, he was about to ask what he was doing, when he felt someone close by.

 

 _"Could that be one of the bandits that Shikaku-sensei had warned us about?"_ Sai asked himself as he tok out one of his scrolls and a paint brush from his pocket, his eyes looked around sharply for the intruder, not hearing a sound. He was on edge, if there really were bandits near by, they could be in trouble, they were supposed to be new;y minted genin for kami's sake, how would they handle this? After a second, the percents he'd felt earlier was fading, as if the person was walking away from them. Sai relaxed a bit before sitting down next to the Nara, waiting for him to be aware of reality again.

 

"Got it," Shikamaru said as his eyes snapped open.

 

Sai looked at the Nara, "what did you get?" He asked, already having put away his weapons of choice.

 

Shikamaru stood up and reached into his pocket, he pulled out a folded square from it, his left eye twitched, "damn it old man, at least don't make it so obvious." He muttered to himself before turning to Sai, "it looks like my tou-san thought that it would be funny to put the map into my pocket the day before, just so we could wast time looking for it today." He informed then started to open up the map, "although it's a good way to throw someone off and wast time, it's annoying to say the least," he held out the map in front of him, his eye twitched again when he saw the map completely unfolded, "wha-why that ol-"

 

"What does it say?" Sai asked, getting up to his feet and walking over to Shikamaru's side to also look at the map, "which way are we supposed to go?" 

 

Shikamaru's eye twitched again, "it seems that we'll be needing to use our yellow flare sooner than I thought."

 

Sai looked from Shikamaru to the map and his eyes narrowed, even he couldn't comprehend how simple this test would be for him on his own. In Shikamaru's hand was one half of a map that showed all of Konoha, it looked to show the side of the village that thy were closest to, while leaving the other side in the hands of the other two man team. You could also clearly see that there were three 'X' marks on the map, one was close to them, one was near the bottom of the map, but it was mostly torn off because of the way the the map was severed. The third X mark was a big red one that was right over something that he could just make out was a tower, but he couldn't be completely sure, since the name of the building was missing, along with the other half of the third X. "Now this is troublesome," Sai found himself saying, he sighed, "well, I guess we-" Sai was cut off when he heard sound coming from the radio that he was holding onto, he took it from his pocket and turned up the volume a little so the sound would be clearer. 

 

_"......units, the girl is on the move, I repeat, she is on the move. All available units be prepared to peruse, she has the package."_

 

  _"Roger that sir, Eagle is on the move, I repeat, I am on the move."_

 

Both boy's eyes widened, "that can't be regular bandits, there's no one" Shikamaru said as he processed what he just heard."

 

Sai nodded, "it sounds like they're agents, but what are they doing on this line?"

 

"Damn, what's he gotten us into?" Shikamaru clenched his fist, "we better get going," he started walking away towards the east side of the village, where Naruto and Lee would be at. Or should still be.

 

"I take it that we're not going to be using our flares to notify our teammates," Sai observed. "Might I make a suggestion?"

 

"What is it?" Shikamaru asked as he took to the trees, jumping from branch to branch so that they could, hopefully make it to Naruto and Lee faster.

 

"A little while back, I was doing some training, and I learned a thing or two about fixing a radio so that if we use ours, the line would be closed. However, I can only get it to the point that our side of the connection is spotty or scrambled at best...if we can make it to the others quick enough, then I can fix their radio's too." Sai explained.

 

"You know what Sai, that's a pretty cool idea, I wished we could have learned something like that in the academy, I might have participated more," the Nara confessed. It was true, in his, Chouji's and Naruto's individual opinions, the lessons they learned at the academy was horrifying to them. Since they were able to make the rank of ANBU, even if it was in secret and under another name, the three all thought the same thing when they compared what they were learning in the academy, to what they already knew of the real world. To tell it plainly, the academy's learning style was way more sheltered than anything they knew of, and being an ANBU that traveled to different lands and snuck into offices to steal documents, he could that Konoha was losing their touch. Compared to other nations, their standers for ninja education had gone down drastically and it made the Nara boy wonder why, though he didn't have to look too far for the answer. The civilian council had a clear grasp on the education system of the whole village, "if it wan't for the civilian side of the council, things would have been different, the kids who entered might actually learn something for a change. Everything taught in our generation seems to spit in the faces of the first and second Hokage."

 

"What do you mean by that? Is the history that was learned there not accurate?" Sai asked, since he's never been enrolled in the academy, he was curious. 

 

Shikamaru shook his head as he dropped from the trees to the ground below, and ran as fast as he could, Sai keeping up with him all the while. "It's not that it's inaccurate, it's that it's too much. They test us on things like the fist and second Hokage, what they did to create the village and what their lives sort of was like, but they never went into more detail other than that. The closest that the students had ever gotten to hearing about real shinobi life, is when they talked about Yondime supposedly  _'killing'_ the Kyuubi, but after that, they would brush it off as a heroic act and use it to encourage the students to do better." Shikamaru scuffed at the thought, it made him angry, especially now that he knew that Naruot was Kyuubi's jinutriki, when he found out, he couldn't stop himself from noticing the way that everyone treated Naruto through out the years.

 

Sai raised an eye brow at the boy running next to him, "you...sound like you don't believe in the story," he stated, watching Shikamaru's reaction closely.

 

"Ha, as if I would, besides, you can stop with the act, I know you're from ROOT," Shikamaru explained.

 

"How do you know so much about-" Sai started.

 

"About ROOT? Well, that's because a friend of mind used to work there, in fact, I think he still does, but that's irrelevant right now." Shikamaru stated as he quickened his space, "if we don't get to Naruto and Lee soon, then someone, maybe whoever it was on the other side of the radio, might find them." Shikamaru kept quite about Kitsune and his time in ROOT, he didn't know much about his captain but he knew that the blond would not want anyone talking about his personal life without him knowing about it first. "We can talk about this after." Sai nodded, holding Shikamaru to his word and picked up his speed to match the Nara's, one way or the other, he was going to get his answers.

 

* * *

**Meanwhile, with Naruto and Lee**

 

Naruto and Lee had spent no time at all looking for the map, they looked high and low, but after five minutes of looking in the immediate area, found that the map wasn't there. The map also didn't seem to be covered by a genjutsu, because Kurama allowed Naruto to seek out all types of genjutsu of every level, and brake the lower based one. The blond still needed training braking the higher leveled genjutsus. Naruto scratched his head, he was confused, where could Shikaku have hidden the map? It should be a relatively small thing of paper that they should have been able to find, even with the small amount of time that went by, finding paper in the forest should not take this long, should it? Naruto's found a demon cat named, Tora, who seemed to be the best at hiding, much quicker than this, so why is one little piece of paper giving him this much trouble? Pouting, Naruto sat down on the ground and put his hands in his pocket to see if the other items he got from the bag could have given him a clue  or something, as to where this map could be. He knew that it would be like finding a needle in a hay stack, but after touching something flat in his pocket, he pulled it out to see what it was and knew that he had been had. Naruto stood up, he looked at the paper in his hand, it was folded, when he unfolded it he got a tick mark on his forehead, "I'm not PLAYING THESE CAMES!!" He yelled out, as if Shikaku could hear him, since the clan head said that they would be testing them, he assumed that he could and was probably laughing at the blond's antics right now (which he was by the way, but they didn't need to know that right now).

 

"Naruto, did you find the map? What is wrong?" Lee asked, appearing out of a bush behind the blond ninja.

 

Naruto grumbled something about crazy Nara's and their creative hiding places before turning to Lee, "yeah I found it. Here, it seems that Shikaku- _sensei_ found the perfect place to hid the damn thing, it was right under my nose the hole time!" He folded his arms in front of him, still fuming about the discovery.

 

Lee took the map from Naruto and looked at it, he turned it over in his hands, looking at it from all angles. "Um, Naruto, I think we're..." Lee started as he turned his eyes back to the still fuming blond, he held up the map so Naruto could see it fully, "we're missing the rest."

 

Naruto's eye twitched as he looked at the map, from what he could tell, they got the bottom half to the map. "Damn you Shikaku, who the hell gives an assignment like this without all the details?" He grumbled when suddenly, he heard something on the radio that seemed to change his mood a little, just a little. He fished the thing out of his other pocket and turned up the volume to hear:

 

_"........ove, I repeat, she is on the move. All available units be prepared to peruse, she has the package."_

 

_"Roger that sir, Eagle is on the move, I repeat, I am on the move."_

 

"Damn it, what is this?" Naruto asked as he turned the radio to silent so that no one could hear their conversation by accident just in case.

 

"Who do you think they're talking about, Naruto?" Lee asked as he stepped out of the bushes, a serious look on his usually childish face.

 

"Tch, who else, it's Hinata. It couldn't be anyone else because this type of radio has a closed frequency that only lets others that are linked into it's main unite hear what other's with the same frequency has to say." Naruto explained as he sat down and started to fiddle with the radio a little, he took out one of the kuni he brought with for the test and opened the radio up. He cut some wires here and there, and applied fire nature to his chakra before coating his hands with it, "Lee, keep a look out for anyone suspicious while I do this, if you see anyone, let me know. I need five minutes, that's it," he stated before going silent as he worked.

 

"Got it," Lee said and jumped up into the trees, keeping watching, while Naruto did his thing.

 

**Four minutes later...**

 

Lee saw something in the distance, they were running through the forest rather fast, but not as fast to say they were ninjas. Lee looked down at Naruto, "Naruto, there are some people coming this way, from my count, there's about five or six of them," Lee informed the blond who was still bent over the radio.

 

"I need a minute still...." he looked up at Lee after connecting another wire and burning it into place, "if they come closer, keep them busy for me, I'll join you as soon as I can."

 

Lee nodded and jumped higher into the trees where he had a better view of their surroundings. Off in the distance, a little more towards the right, the opposite direction that the unknown people were coming from, he saw two other people making their way towards their location as well. However, these two seemed to be much younger and smaller than group Lee spotted earlier, they were further away, but they would arrive soon, although not soon enough if they were who Lee hoped they were. Seeing the first, larger group making their way over to his and Naruto's spot quickly, Lee knew what he had to do. He jumped down from his perch on the tree branch and took up his taijutsu stance before them, making the men stop, Lee took note that they were all wearing black suits and had on face masks that were white, with a black stripe going down the middle. The black stripe were maybe about three inches or so wide, with eye holes matching up with the dividing line for the black and white part of the mask.

 

Lee was drawn from his observation when one of the men spoke, "hay, it's just a snot nosed kid! Let's get him and follow the orders of the boss so we can get our reward!" Said one random guy.

 

"Yeah, let's hurry up and get that blond kid, I'm tired of eating with those damn chop sticks!" Yelled another.

 

"Even though Naruto is only my part time youthful teammate as of right now, I can not, in good continuous allow you all to do something so unyouthful to him. Prepare to fight as I show you my flames of yourth!" Lee said with confidence, but not too much, since his sensei had taught him to never underestimate his opponent, or opponents, in this matter.

 

"Ha, big talk for a weak looking kid, let's get him boys!" Another random guy yelled and the others cheered in agreement as they rushed towards the green clad ninja.

 

"Then let it begin...." Lee closed his eyes as he took in a deep breath, he let it out slowly and snapped his eyes open when the men in black came closer. "YOUTH!!!!" He yelled as his battle cry and started throwing punches and kicks with lightening fast speed that it was hard to keep up with. To the naked eye, it looked like the boy with the bowl hair cut was disappearing and reappearing around the men before each man was knocked to the floor, when he reappeared behind the group of adults, they were all on the floor either passed out or unable to move. Lee turned to them, "you all put up a good fight, but you're skills need work," he commented before he felt someone land behind him. He turned to see three people, the first was Sai, then Shikamaru, and lastly, another man dressed up like the other's he had faced just now, but there was something different this man that set him apart, first, he wasn't wearing a mask, and second, he was definitely not from the Elemental Nations. The man was tall with dreadlocks in his hair that could have easily been mistaken for brads from far away, his skin color was the same as Iruka, olive colored, and his suit was a lightish brown, he had on a dark red shirt underneath and a black tie. He had one hand in his pocket and his mouth set in a light frown as he stared at the three kids before him, though they couldn't read his eyes, since they were covered by shades, they knew that he was thinking somehow.

 

"Who are you, and what do you want?" Shikamaru asked, his voice gaining an edge because of the situation they were in.

 

"Who me? I'm just a high school teacher from Ikabukuro High, well actually, I'm sort of retired from that job now. Though one of my students did come back to me for guide him or whatever," the man stated calmly, muttering the last  he scratched the back of his neck casually as he looked over the trio before him. "Listen, I don't feel like fighting with you three, however, my boss still wants me to test you so..." he paused as he watched the kids tense and the one in green get into a fighting stance again. The man clapped his hands together and smiled, "oh I know! How about a little quiz instead?" He asked cheerfully, throwing the kids through a loop by his sudden change in attitude.

 

"What do you mean by, a quiz?" Shikamaru asked uneasily as he stared at the man.

 

"Simple, I was given information that you three should and should not know, there are no right or wrong answers. Say the first thing that comes to your mind and, if it makes you three feel better, I will tell you guys three things about me while we're at it, sound good?" The mystery man asked.

 

Lee, Sai, and Shikamaru looked at each other, Shikamaru walked closer to Lee while still keeping his eye on the man, Sai followed his lead. "What do you guys think? Can we trust him?" Sai asked what were on the other two's mind.

 

"I don't know, he give's off a youthful aura, but there's something about him that tell's me that he's dangerous." Lee informed them of his thoughts, "however, he does seem like a man of his word, which makes his will of fire burn brightly in my eyes."

 

Sai looked at Lee, "huh?" He asked the green clad boy.

 

"He means that we can probably trust this guy enough to keep his word," Shikamaru explained. He turned back to the man, "alright, we'll play your game, shoot."

 

"Grate, first question's an easy one, what is a jinturiki?" The man asked.

 

"What is a jinturiki?" Sai repeated, "what does he mean by that?"

 

"I don't know, I have never heard of one before," Lee said, also confused by the mans words.

 

"A jinturiki is a human that sacrifices his or her life to keep a bijuu, other wise known as a tailed beat, at by within their own body. The term is translated into The Ultimate Human Sacrifice," Shikamaru answered the question, making the other two boys look at him in wonder, well Sai's was more of a suspicious look.

 

"Very good, although, you were not supposed to know that information," the man said. "Alright, as promised, the first thing I'll let you three know about me is...." he rubbed his chin as he thought, "my name, it's Tom, I know, I know, not very original, but my mom always like the name, plus she was from the states. That may have been more than one, but who cares, next question, how many people on your new team are actually in the ANBU? And that includes the secret one that no one else is supposed to know about," he said, making both Sai and Shikamaru tense up again.

 

Lee looked a little lost at one the man was saying, but then he looked at the reactions that his new teammates were giving and drew up a conclusion. "Excuse me, youthful sir, you said that there is no wrong answer, right?" Lee asked, making the two other boys look at him, the man nodded, "then I would say that there's two are in the ANBU, although, I cannot say which one is in which."

 

The man had a surprised look on his face, "ooooh, my, my, it looks like this bunch is filled with information this time. Every well, you're actually missing two, but I'll let that slid since you're not supposed to know. My turn, uhm, okay, since I retired from my job as a high school teacher, I became a broker, of sorts, I go around collecting debts, that makes two/two on each side. Next question," the man thought for a moment, "who is....the Kyuubi jinturiki and why is he treated the way he is? Assuming you three even know the way he's been treated til now, it would be common for the others as well."

 

Shikamaru clenched his fist, "alright, who are you, really? How do you know so much about us and our village? Are you some sort of spy for another village or what?"

 

Sai put a hand on Shikamaru's shoulder, "calm down, we wont get any answers like that," he said before turning back to the man. "That is, if you were going to tell us the answer anyways after we answer you questions."

 

The mystery man, Tom, chuckled light heatedly, "well I was going to tell you about my student and how we work together, but that seems more interesting than that. If you would like, I could tell you that instead," he offered.

 

Sai nodded, "very well, I don't know much about him, but I do know that Naruto Uzumaki holds the Kyuubi within him. Other than that, I don't know what he's like, no more than he likes to prank people."

 

"Tch, he doesn't really like it, he does it for practice," Shikamaru stated, folding his arms in front of himself.

 

"Sounds like you know alot about him, why don't you tell the others? I'm sure that they would like to know," Tom said, his kind smile never leaving his face.

 

Shikamaru grumbled under his breath and sighed, "Naruto's not the person, or thing, that everyone makes him out to be. He's actually really, really different from that person, and he's kind heart'd, even to those he's just meet. Naruto's like the person that you would call when you're in a troublesome situation, even though he's going through a troublesome situation himself, he'll always be there for the ones he thinks of as his precious people. But.....I don't like talking about his treatment, it makes my stomach every time, so I wont talk about it."

 

Tom nodded, he had heard of the way that the blond had been treated from the man who hired him to talk to these kids. He didn't want to hear about it again, "very well, as promised, since that was the third question, I will give you a third fact about myself. My boss, you could say that he's a Death God, a Shinigame, if you will. He reached out to me to come here and test your team because of a certain Hokage's new idea. This man, my boss, feels that he could make you guys grate, famous even, that is, if you wanted to be famous, and he also told me that he wanted to get ready for the future."

 

"What does he want with us?" Sai asked, "it's not every day that someone outside of the Elemental Nations gets wind of a new team and wants to train them....is there something pacific that he wants us to do for me in return?"

 

Tom shrugged his shoulders, "fair enough, your question is valid, you see, there's this...problem he's been having. He's actually been having this problem for as long as he could remember, and he thought that you five could help out. He wants you to enter a training program that will get you all ready for the task, he'll make sure to take care of everything, all your needs and everything, as long as you agree to his terms."

 

"Which would be?" Lee asked.

 

"Leave the Elemental Nations for a little while, and train under him, once he's done training you all, you my choose to stay or leave. You will always be welcomed to return to his side, but the choice is up to you." Tom in formed, "while training, you will work for him, but don't worry, the work he gives is no different that the work that you guys were already trained to do already." He then took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it, "now then, I believe that I've given you guys way more information that what we had first agreed upon, so in return for the information, how you tell me yours? I mean, it's only fair, no? I mean, you already know mine."

 

The trio looked at each other, a small debate passing between them, "Shikamaru Nara," the Nara said, resigned.

 

"Rock Lee," said the green clad boy, chest puffed out proudly.

 

"Sai, I have no last name," stated the pail boy.

 

"Like I said earlier, I'm Tom, it was a pleasure meeting you all...I think we will be meeting again soon, je ne." Tom turned and walked away, his cigarette hand in the air in a backwards wave as he walked away from them.

 

"I heard everything," the blond said, his lips set in a deep frown, "Shika-chan...." the others turned to look at Naruto as he came from the bushes, "we should find Hina-chan to so we can regroup. I'm sure that she will have found another one of these guys, if that Eagle guy hasn't already found her," he took off toward the village, hoping that he could find Hinata on the way, the other's followed him.

 

 

"Naruto, I don't know how to say this, but, I think we just walked into more than just a simple genin test," Shikamaru stated as they ran towards the gates.

 

"Yes, Shikamaru is right, this was nothing like the test I have heard about from past genin that made it, nor is it like the test  took with my team when we graduated." Lee stated, "something most unyouthful is going on here."

 

"Yes Lee, and if I might point out, these 'bandits' that we were warned about are not like any bandit I've ever seen before. They wear suits of uniform and high standers. They are more than likely civilians and I think that they are gunning for us, but not to test our strengths and weaknesses."

 

"Why would Shikaku-sensei send people in suits after us? What are we supposed to do about them interfering with our test?" Sai asked.

 

"First, there isn't anything we can do, however, if we meet up with another one of those suits, we need to get info." Naruto said as he spotted something in the distance and stopped, he crouched down and looked out into the trees, the other's not knowing what he was doing stopped and crouched down as well.

 

"What's the matter, Naruto? Do you see something?" Shikamaru asked as he looked in the direction the blond was looking.

 

Naruto was silent for a while until he stood up abruptly, "let's go," he said, changing his directions from the east gate, to the denser part of the forest that surrounded the village. The others followed him, without knowing it, they knew that it was the right thing to do. Following Naruto, they felt like they were under the rule of a smart and strong leader, with one of them knowing it to be true.

 

* * *

 

**Back with Hinata....**

 

After Hinata had disappeared into the crowd at the market place, she had managed to weave her way through the crowd of shoppers until she made her way to the academy. She was sure that this was going to be her down fall, but since it was the academy, she knew that she could get away from who ever it was that was chasing her by doing a simple henge jutsu on herself. Landing in front of the gates, she ran all the way around the building to the back and hid in soem bushes, luckily that she did, because as soon as she was settled in the bushes, she pared out to find two men in suits stop in front of her hiding spot, they looked around for a minute, confused as to where she could have gone, but they soon heard a noise coming from the training halls that drew their attentions. The two men in suits ran off towards the sound and Hinata sighed in relief, but she didn't allow herself t celebrate too soon, she still needed to complete her first part of the mission/test. Shikaku had written on the papers, just under the warning note, that she was supposed to regroup with Naruto and the others to help look for the item on the map. She was supposed to help, if need be, and bring both the item on the map, as well as the unopened package, to the Hokage tower before the end of the test. Hinata couldn't help but to wonder what was in the package that made it so big and heavy in the first place, but she knew as a ninja that she could not open any packages, no matter how grate the temptation. Putting her hand in the right hand signs, Hinata henged into different person, someone that no one would suspect. She got smaller and her hair got longer, splitting into pig tails and took on a orangy color. Her cheeks grew pink as if they were in a permanent state of blush, her lavender eyes turned a dark brown and her clothes changed. Instead of her usual baggy, dull colored clothes, she had on a dark red vest over a dark-ligh pink stripped shirt, a long blue scarf around her neck that went to the floor behind her. Her pants were a khakis and she had blue shinobi sandals on her feet, "right, now I can at lest make it out the village to help the others," she whispered to herself. He parted the leaves to look out of the bushes, seeing that everything was all clear, she stepped out of the bushes, "oh wait, I know," she said to herself as she did her previous handsign again and the big bag on her back turned into a large teddy bear bag pack, she looked back to see the overly large head of the bear on her back and smiled. Now that the bag was a teddy bear, and she was a little girl, she would fool just about anyone.

 

Happy with her work, she held onto the straps of her bag and ran out of the academy gates. She maneuvered her way though town with ease, making her way over to the nearest gate, luckily for her, it was the east gate. She hopped into another bush near by and watched as the men in suits ran passed her hiding spot once more, she couldn't help but to giggle at them. When the mean were out of sight, she ducked back into her spot int the bushes and transformed into someone else, she was sure that this person could enter and leave the village as they pleased, since she saw them do it all the time. She smirked when the transformation was complete, she was surprised by how easy it was to do the jutsu and keep it up as she walked right on up to the gate guards, Izumo and Kotestu, who seemed to be board out of their skulls. They spotted Hinata in her transformation and stopped her, "Hyuuga-sama, it is good to see you today, where might you be going, if you don't mind me asking?' Izumo asked, politely greeting the person before him.

 

'Hiashi' Hyuuga, nodded to them, "hello, I am heading to a near by village, I am meeting up with special friend that left the village a while back. I will most likely be gone for about a day," he said, "will that be all?"

 

Kotestu nodded, "hai, Hyuuga-sama, you may carry on," he said, both guards waving to the Hyuuga clan head.

 

"Is it just me, or did Hyuug-sama seems a bit more...um, nicer today?" Izumo asked.

 

Kotestu shrugged his shoulders, "who knows about that guy, but as long as that stick up his ass doesn't get any deeper, I don't care how nice he asks. As long as he doesn't yell at us like last time, I'm fine with anything," he stated, they both remembered that time and nodded in agreement. Hinata had hid behind a near by tree and giggled when she heard what the two chunin had to say about her father, it was good to know that he was such a dick to only her. Cutting her giggling to a minimum, Hinata took off into the forest to start her search for the other members of her team, still in her transformation.

 

**To Be Continued..............**


	6. Ah fuck

Naruto took off into the trees after noting something interesting in the distance, he took off after the person and was now dropping down in front of them. Shikamaru, Sai, and Lee dropped down next to him and looked from the blond to the person he was staring at. "Uhm, Naruto, is something wrong? We're wasting time just standing here," Sai said to Naruto.

 

"Yosh, our youthful friend is right, we must fine thee lady Hinata and help her protect the youthful package as we finish this test so you guys may also become splendid ninja as well!" Lee said/yelled with flames slowly growing in his eyes as he spoke.

 

"Yeah, yeah, Lee, we get it, do you have to scream so much?" Shikamaru said while cleaning his ears, "but he isn't wrong Naruto, what's the hold up?"

 

Naruto smiled at his subordinate, "well I just wanted to stop for a moment so that I could congratulate Hinata-chan here for her grade A henge. It seems to have fooled even a ANBU of your talents," the blond cheered as he waved his hand to the Hyuug head before them.

 

As if they seemed to have just noticed, the three other boys turned their eyes to the Hyuuga clan head and started at 'him' for a long moment. Indeed, Hiashi Hyuuga was standing before them. But unlike the Hiashi they all knew, this one was not scowling at them for getting in his way, or saying how grate the clan were since they were now the only (known) dojutsu clan in the village. No, this one was smiling and waving at them as if they were long time friends that went to school together, "huh?" The three said confused, though Sai's was more internal than out.

 

Naruto sighed and shook his head, "well Hinata, you might as well just drop the jutsu now, since I know it's you," he said to the Hyuuga.

 

"Right," Hiashi said while holding his...teddy near backpack? With both hands, "KAI!" Just then the grown man was turned into a preteen girl with midnight black hair in a princess cut, wearing a baggy light brown jacket and dark blue pant, once Hinata was standing before them, she smiled at the three boys brightly. To be honest, after remembering the bath they shared that night, having them stare at her with her clothes on wasn't as embarrassing as it was before, "okay, let's get going!" She said with a slight blush on her cheeses, and her eyes were looking anywhere but at them.

 

Naruto pouted at the fact that Hinata still seemed to be pretty embarrassed, but lest she wasn't stuttering anymore. He would take this, at least, as a small win and work to get a bigger one next time, "alright, we're moving out, our next stop is the X mark on this map." He said easily taking out the map from seemingly thin air, which caused Lee to stat looking in his pouch were he thought the map had been secured, when he found it to be gone, he looked at Naruto with worry. Naruto spotted the look and reassured Lee, "don't worry, I too this when you weren't looking," said the blond, making the taijutsu user calm down and awe at his skills. Naruto turned to Shikamaru, "I assume that you have the other have, right?" 

 

"Hm? Oh yeah," Shikamaru looked at the other half of thee map, his earlier thoughts seeming to be true, Naruto's have was the one they needed. However, there was another problem, when he reopened the map and place it next to his, they all took not that there was still another piece missing from the puzzle. "Oh great, now do we do? There's another piece missing, and my old man didn't even give us a hint upon were  _that_ one might be, this is such a drag."

 

"Huh?" Naruto looked at the map pieces they did have, they did have a third piece missing, however, this might not be as big of a problem as they had once thought. He turned to Hinata, who still wasn't looking at them all, "Hinata, can I see that piece of paper that Shikaku sensei had given you earlier?" He asked the shy girl.

 

"Uh, sure," Hinata said and fished the paper out of her pocket, giving it to the blond as requested.

 

The paper was crumpled up and seemed to have been folded many times, on one side, it was plan. On the other side, there was writing on it, there were two locations, a warning, and then some directions. "Hmm, it seems that we're supposed to deliver the package that Hina-chan picked up to the old man hokage, but there's something odd about this," Naruto stared hard at the paper for a moment before putting up a handsign, "kai!"

 

"Anything? Is it the ot-" Lee started in hope.

 

"No, it's not, but there are more directions now," Naruto stated as he read them to himself.

 

"What do they say?" Shikamaru asked before narrowing his eyes and jumping back from the group. 

 

"Huh, guys? What ar-" Lee started but was cut off when a kuni almost took out his eye, he jumped up into a tree away from where the group had been standing just moments before.

 

Sai landing in another tree not too far away from Lee, Shikamaru was hiding in a couple bushes not too far from Lee's location. Naruto had managed to grab Hinata and jump away to a spot out of view of their attackers, he had made sure to plant a radio on Sai just in case, switching out his radio for his own as he did so. He let got of Hinata and looked around for the person that attacked them while he fixed Sai's confiscated radio the same way he did his own, since he already knew the inner workings of the radio's from when he fixed his, he didn't need as much time doing it over again with this other one, he discreetly made a shadow clone with orders to do the same with the radio Shikamaru had on had. Looking out at the spot that they were just in, they saw nothing from each of their view points for half a minute until some weird man ran into the clearing, he had light blond hair that framed his face under a white and green stripped hat. This man wore a dark green gi and the rest of his outfit was a lighter green, almost as if he had just planned on spending the day at home, not doing anything, when his plans were all of a sudden changed for some reason. Naruto wouldn't bother thinking of the reason why someone would dress to stay home and then decide to walk out into a forest so he could throw kuni at some kids in the middle of a two to three day genin test. But then again, he was getting the feeling that this wasn't just a genin test they were dealing with now, no it had to be something else, but what? As he thought, he finished the radio in his hand in record time from his last one, a total of four minutes, while he had done that, the older blond seemed to be just looking for them. He did it so casually that Naruto got the feeling that they were meant to be playing hid-n-seek with this guy until his parents came to pick him up. In some way, he thought it was oddly embarrassing to him.

 

"Come on out little kiddies! Kisuke wants to play!" The older blond said in a sing-song way.

 

"Naruto, do you know who that guy is? I haven't seen him around the village before," Hinata observed.

 

"Nether have I, Hinata, but sooner or later, we're going to have to leave and get on with this test." Naruto then got the memories of the clone he had sent out to fix Shikamaru's radio, it took the clone three minutes, seemed that he was getting better and better all the time, he smirked at thee small accomplishments. Although proud of his work, his turned serious a second later once he heard the radio crackle to life. 

 

 _"Naruto, are you there, can you hear me?"_ Came the whispered voice of Shikamaru.

 

"Yea, I can hear you just fine, Shikamaru, what about Lee and Sai? Can you guys hear me okay?" Naruto whispered back into his radio, waiting patient and a little impatient for the two to answer.

 

It took a minute, but Sai's voice was heard on the other side of the radio,  _"Naruto, we can hear you. But we should get moving, that guy is starting to look at your hiding spot, I think he's on to you and Hinata,"_ he said, true enough, the man who called himself 'Kisuke' was looking at their spot of hiding.

 

Naruto frowned, "okay, we're going to shinshin to the spot near training ground 12 and 27. Now!" Naruto grabbed hold of Hinata again and shushined in a burst of flames, the others doing the same in a similar fashion, while Naruto was talking, the man that was looking at their hiding spot, Kisuke, had started forward. He was running at a civilian pace thinking that he had enough time to get to them before they noticed, but was mistaken when he found the tree empty. Meanwhile, at the mentioned training grounds, Lee, Sai, Shikamaru, Hinata, and Naruto all appeared at relatively the same time, being only seconds apart, "good, now let's get moving and look for these things before we're found again." The other's nodded and got to work, they tapped the map together with some medical tap from one of the first aid kit they each had, even with the part they had, they didn't quite know where the third X at the bottom of the map was placed, and the second one seemed to be close to a large lake on the other side of he village. While the first was easy enough to identify once they got the second half, it was also that much harder to find since it was in the middle of the village. It was also at this time of realization that they were, except Lee, cursing whoever it was that made their very un-detailed map, "they must have done that on purpose to test us or something. Either that, or else head's are going to roll when I get back to the village," Naruto promised as they got close to the post where the first X should be, they had no idea what they were looking for. But they couldn't leave empty handed.

 

"Hinata, could you use your eyes to look for the item that we're supposed to get here?" Shikamaru asked.

 

Hinata nodded and turned on her Byakugon and started looking about on the ground, the bushes, trees, and even the lake. She didn't want to leave any stone un-turned, and since she had did a bunch of training with her dojutsu away from her family's preying eyes, she had gotten a whole lot more better, but not as good as her cousin, Neji. He was on another level than her, maybe it was because he was older or the fact that he got to tray way more than Hinata did, even when she did it secretly, but still, she would get stronger with time, she just needed to keep training. Hinata walked forth toward a couple of bushes by the lake, "I think I found it," she said unsure as she turned off her Byakugon.

 

"Really? Where...in here?" Sai asked as he started looking through the bushes, however, the only thing he found was a somewhat new looking stuffed deer, "is this what were's supposed to get?" He asked skeptically.

 

Shikamaru was looking about the lake while Hinata was using her Byakugon, when he heard that they found what they needed, he walked over to see what the thing was that was causing them so much trouble. He gasped upon seeing the stuffed deer and snatched it away, "why that old fart, he's taking my stuff out of my room for this now?!" He grumbled as he looked over the toy deer, his father himself had gifted this to him when he was three years old, why would he take this from his room though? He was curious and started looking over his childhood toy.

 

"Oh, Shikamaru, how youthful of you to hang onto a memento of your childhood," Lee cheered.

 

Shikamaru blushed a little, he didn't want anyone else to know that he still had just about all of his stuffed toys from since he was born, that was just embarrassing. He was supposed to be an adult now for crying out loud! But before he could respond to the green beast, he found a seal under the deer's head, "guys, look at this," he called them closer as he brushed his fingers over the seal, pushing a small amount of chakra through it as he did. A scroll with a light green ribbon tying it's center and the Nara clan symbol on it, "well, I think we've got what we need here, let's get going before-"

 

"Well, well, well, well, looky what we got here boys, a couple of kiddies coming out to play, huh?" Came the guff voice of a man, turning around, they all saw that they were bandits, just like Shikaku had warned them, but the question was: why didn't they sense them coming?

 

One guy was tall, tan and round, his orangy redish hair in some half ass'd three part mo-hawk, the guy next to him was not as tall, but he was pail with light blue hair and dark colored lipstick on. This guy seemed to have a second head, but that couldn't be...could it? The next person was tanned a little darker than the first guy, his hair pulled back in a high pony tail, almost mirroring Shikamaru's pony, behind them were other bandits that didn't seem like regular bandits at all. The big guy walked forward towards the kid, even though they were just fresh out of the academy, there was one that had been a genin for year already, another with a pretty good handle on her family's fighting, though it still needed some work here and there, a ROOT ANBU, and two regular ANBU. If there was a fight that would happen, Naruto and Shikamaru was sure that they could handle themselves well enough, as well as Sai and Lee, to some extent, they worried about Hinata, not because she was a girl, but because she didn't have much else to gall back on other than family style. They, those who were in the academy with her, knew that she still had trouble with the style and was hoping that when, if, they survived this, they would help her with her taijutsu or just help her find a new style all together that suit her more. Anyways, as they were slowly surrounded by the stand bandits, Naruto started to notice something,  _"why can't I feel their chakra still? It's so strange, it's almost as if they're not even their, wait, maybe..."_ he tapped into his mindscape and asked Kurama about this. There was something going on that really didn't sit right with him, if this was really apart of the test, shouldn't they have been able to sense bandits, after all, even if the bandits had ronin in their ranks, they would still feel their chakra, and most bandits, if not all, were made up by civilians that were too greedy for their own good. Civilian's don't usually know how to maks their chakra this well unless they went to shinobi school, learned how to control chakra there, then dropped out at some point to become bandits, if that were the case, then the hidden village's needed some way to keep track of these citizens.

 

**Mindscape**

 

 _"Kurama, what's going on? These people, unless they're dead, should have a chakra signature that I could lock onto and sense them coming from miles away, but as of now, I can't feel shit. What's going on?"_ Naruto called out to the large fox in his forest of a mindscape.

 

Kurama was looking out through Naruto's eyes, watching what was going on, trying to feel for their chakras as well, but even he couldn't feel a thing. It was the seal that was blocking him, but it was something else, he could feel it. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he knew that their sense's were being blocked off for some reason, but why?  **"Kit, somethings not right with this area, you need to hurry back and get the rest of your meat bags and get the hell out of here. From the looks of things, it's about to get supper dicey if you don't,"** Kurama growled as he looked out at the surrounding bandits. Now Naruto knew something was wrong, Kurama wasn't giving him information, this must be big, and he couldn't wait to figure it out and kick who's ever ass it was that put them in this situation. He left his mindscape to relay the message.

 

**Real world**

 

While he had been in his mindscape, Shikamaru, Sai, Lee, and Hinata had all gone back to back with him as the bandits circled around them. This was differently not good. Shikamaru had a kuni out and was eyeing the people around them wearily. "What did Kurama say?" The Nara whispered to his ANBU captian, catching their teammates attention.

 

"Nothing," Naruto said reaching into his back to take out a kuni as well, "but have you guys noticed?" He asked as the bandit leader, they guys it was the big guy with the mo-hawk, was talking to his gang, "I can't sense their chakra, even when their right in front of us, it's like their ghost or something."

 

"Could this be come sort of high level genjutsu or something? Hinata, can you dispel this?" Shikamaru asked.

 

"What? A-a genjuts? But I can see them too!" Hinata whisper hissed at them in fear, no the others were starting to worry as well, it was well known that the Hyuuga's are able to see through just about any genjutsu with their dojutsu activated and not. Hinata activated her dojutsu and deactivated it just as quick when a pain hit her eyes, almost blinding her.

 

"What's wrong Hinata?" Lee asked, going to help her.

 

"What did you see, Hinata?" Sai asked as he kept on guard, but the bandits were busy listening to what their leader was saying about them, and it wasn't anything good. They seemed to be debating something, he wasn't sure of what, but he knew it involved them being hurt of they couldn't get out soon. Hopefully HInata had some small way out from to escape through, even though it may be risky.

 

"I don't know what it was, but it was like a bunch of chakra surrounding us, I couldn't see a single thing." Hinata explained, I still can't sense then, I think this might be some sort of barrier or something."

 

"A barrier? How could we walk into a barrier without knowing it?" Lee asked the question that was on everyone mind, they stop to think about how they got here and how this could have happened, this seemed impossible. Naruto was a sensory, Shikamaru was a damn good tracker for the lazy mentality he was born with, he could detect things as well. This that most people would't. Naruto knew that Sai was a bit of a sensory too because he had trained him some while he was training under Donzo for a short while, he also trained with Lee when he was younger too. Lee's lack of chakra was a good way for Naruto to practice while training his taijutsu at the same time, and he also had the pleasure of working with Hinata as well, even though the heiress didn't know it. It some ways, it was almost like his picked this very team himself.

 

However, Naruto's short trip down memory lain came to a grinding halt when the round guy said something that chilled him to the bone, he also noticed how slow time seemed to be going around them. "Alright, alright, all ready! That's enough! Bentin, you take a group over there, Joshiro, you take the other, everyone else, do what you want! We'll all get a turn at least once before the night is done, agreed!" The crowd around, which was about fifteen to twenty bandits in all, cheered in agreement and started charging forth towards the genin squad.

 

"Oh shit, that's not good," Shikamaru said as he was prepared to fight off as many as he could before going down.

 

"Okay guys, do whatever you can to survive. Fight until you drop, even then still keep fighting!" Naruto shouted out orders as he started punching and kicking the first few men that tried to take him down, he did not want to think about what they were planing. He was also trying to access Kurama's powers, but something kept blocking him, "damnit!" He cursed and swept some guy's feet from under him before ducking a right hook.

 

Lee was dishing out taijutsu moves, move after move like the beautiful beast he was. Hinata was in a some what confident state as he pal-used her fighting style to hit a guy where the sun don't shine. Sai was doing his best to use the taijutsu that his master had been teaching him, he almost had it down, but there were still holes in his defenses and the attacking men took advantage of that, throwing him off balance whenever they could. Naruto was still trying, and failing, to use Kurama's chakra to break out of the place, he called out to Kurama to see why he wasn't getting help, that's when Kurama found out what was going on with their sense's.  **"Naruto, I'm about to connect everyone's minds, be ready for a head rush later,"** the fox said as his only warning before pulling everyone into Naruto's mind, while still leaving them in control of their own bodies to fight. 

 

**Mindscape**

 

Everyone looked around to see that they were in a different type of forest form before, they didn't have time to question it and turned to the fox. Lee, Hinata, and Sai  was on guard, Sai only because he saw drawings of what Kurama had looked like when he attacked the village. Lee and HInata because it was a giant fox in front of them, and it was talking!  **"We don't have time for introductions, your bodies are still fighting, you can tell because you can feel the hits you give and get. Now, I'm Kurama, the Kyuubi, and before you freak out, you guys are in what is called a** _'Wèizhuāng xiànjǐng'_ **also known as camouflage entrapment. It was used a long time ago in the great shinobi wars to trap enemies and take out large numbers of their forces, it leads the target into a sense of false comfort before the creators kill them,"** he explained.

 

 _"But why, or rather, how would a bunch of bandits know how to use such a thing?"_ Asked Shikamaru,  _"I had read somewhere that it was created and used by the Uzumaki clan during that time, but how is it here now when that clan was, you know."_

 

 _"I don't know, but we need to do something, if what you say is true, then this dome is going to drain us of our chakra until we can't even stand. This place is to make us weak, it wont kills us, but that wont be said for them,"_ Naruto pointed out,  _"is there a way out of here?"_

 

 **"....I'm sorry kit, but unless you find and kill the person that created this trap, you wont be getting out of here until it comes down,"** Kurama said. 

 

 _"Oh my, it seems that this youthful trap has put us in a most unyouthful situation,"_ pouted as he held his arm. It seemed that someone must have landed a pretty bad hit on him to do that even in his mind,  _"Kurama-san, is there anyway for us to stay awake until we find the person responsible for this unyouthful trap?"_

 

 **"The only tip I can give, is to look for someone with Uzumaki hair, you'll know it when you see it, it's blazing red. There's no other shade like it in the world, promise,"** Kurama nodded.  **"Now then, the only other thing that I can do for you all is to seep some of my chakra into yours so that you will last longer until you find the person responsible, the thing is, you guys would need to be touching for at lest a minute for me to do it. If you can hang on that long during this battle, then  can lend you some of my power, but if not, you may just be screwed until that person is found."**

 

 _"Right, I guess we've got our work cut out for us then,"_   Sai said as he got hit particularly hard in the chest, he winced.  _"I think it's time we head back and put this plan into action."_

 

**Real world** _  
_

 

Back in real time, the fight was still going on, but now Shikamaru and the others were looking a little beat up. Shikamaru had blood on the side of his lips, his face was dirty and his clothes were torn in more than a few places showing the pale skin beneath. Sai was bleeding a little bit and coughed up a small bit of blood, his clothes was torn, he was missing a sleeve, but other than that, he was alright. Hinata on the other hand wasn't doing much better, because someone had manged to turn her jacket into a bad fashion choice. Her pants were almost shorts, she had cuts all over her body and face, and bruises were starting to form, and since the Hyuuga's had naturally small chakra stores, she was almost at her limit. Lee could say that he was starting to rethink his choice of spandex suits, because his was coming to taters quickly, thankfully there was still enough material to call it clothing. Other than a black eye, cuts with blood coming from them, and a missing tooth, Lee was fine. Naruto was still holding his own, using every trick he could think of, since the dome around them was blocking chakra from forming, and stealing it even quicker as they fought, he knew he had to enact Kurama's plan before his new team dropped. He set his sits first on Hinata, since she seemed to be ready to break down first, he didn't like the way that the men were eyeing her u like she was some piece of meat, it was sick. He knocked out the first and closest guy surrounding her with a sneak attack, dropping kicking the unsuspecting bastered in the back of his head knocked him out rather quickly, he punched the guy next to him in the face a spin kicked another in the gut. He was starting to get a little winded with the nonstop fighting, but he shook it off, he ran forward and smashed his foot into another guys face, using said face to launch himself into the air and then back flipped so that he would land next to Hinata. He grabbed her hand and soon he felt Kurama's chakra leaving him to enter Hinata, but the men surrounding them wouldn't wait for that to happen and charged at them.

 

Naruto wasn't about to let go, so he grabbed Hinata's other hand, "don't let go," he said as he looked into her lavender eyes, Hinata was worried about the bandits, but trusted Naruto's judgment. Using the light weight girl as leverage, he charged at the men and swung her around as if she weighed nothing in his grasp, Hinata, for her part, took the momentum and kicked each guy in the face as hard as she could. As the two spun, a good number of bandits started to fall because of them, once Naruto got the okay from Kurama to let go, he let Hinata land next to him, "you good?"

 

Hinata nodded, feeling more confident in herself, "yeah, I'll be fine now," she said with a bright smile. Naruto nodded and took off to help his teammate while Hinata went to take up a fighting stance again, she could feel the new chakra in her veins starting to burn as if it was fire itself. It hurt, but she sued that pain to fuel her in her fight, her hits felt much stronger than when she started, though she couldn't use her Byakugon because of the dome they were in, she was more than ready to fight. As she moved, she found that she wasn't doing much of her family's known taijutsu anymore, instead it was something completely knew to her, it was almost as if she was being- not exactly controlled, but more like guided in what to do. Her movements felt as smooth to her as if it was there all along, she moved like water, she smiled, "I can do this."

 

Meanwhile, Naruto had made it o Sai and was holding onto him in a similar way as Hinata, only, he didn't swing Sai around like he did her. Sai was a very think kid, his paleness alone was could attest to that, so Naruto was left to figure out a way fight with the pale by one handed. They both decided on a back to back stance, their arms were laced and he was confident that they had some sort of technique down where they would switch sides every so often to have each other's back. Sai was starting to get the style that his master had taught him, it was improved by Naruto's comments, "loosen up on that last punch, run it through with your opposite shoulder and then curve it before just before it hits." Naruto coached as he ducked another punch from a guy to his right, and then jumped up with both feet off the ground, avoiding a bold sweeping kick from the same guy, Sai followed Naruto's instructions and his fist smashed into the face of really tall guy that could have been the leaders brother. The force behind the punch was more than enough to knock the guy back a few feet, making him tumble backwards into another set of guys behind him. 

 

"Whoa, all that from one punch, I wasn't even putting that much into it," Sai said in awe.

 

"Think fast!" Naruto said as his only warning to Sai as he let go of his arm, having finished with, and then swerved out of the way from an in coming skull buster kick. Luckily, Sai reacted quick enough for him to get out of the way as well as he jumped into the air above the bandit that tried to deliver the kick. He landed with both feet coming down painfully on the guy's skull, crushing it as they both hit the ground, "what a way to go." Naruto mutter to himself as he made his foot dance through some guys ribs hard enough to brake them, "oh well, it's them or us," he then used then next few bandits as stepping stones to get over to Shikamaru.

 

"Well, well, look who decided to drop by," Shikamaru said as Naruto landed and they were back to back, "you won't forget about little ol' me now, would ya?" 

 

Naruto chuckled as he took hold of Shikamaru's free had, "wouldn't dream of it partner, you still owe me from last week, remember?" He took out a kuni as he spoke and they dashed forward, stabbing bandit after bandit in vital points, some in the neck, a drew in the heart, some in the eyes.

 

"You still hung up about that, ugh fine, whatever, I'll by you some ramen when get the time off," Shikamaru stated.

 

Naruto smirked and threw the kuni away, it hit some rando in the back of the head. "Three bowls," he said turning to the left and someone in the groin, then kicked them in the face hard enough to send then flying into a crowd.

 

"Two, you still need to answer for the Mizukage, who's still in you apartment sleeping by the way." Shikamaru threw his bloody kuni into the of some other rando guy and turn back around with his copy of the punch that Sai pulled off earlier. It hit even harder than it did when Sai did it, and the guy who received it got, lobotomize by his broken nose that bleed out as his body fell.

 

Naruto whistled at the distraction of one mans nose as he dodged some guy trying an attempt to strangle him from behind. He got down low, pulling Shikamaru away from someone who tried to kick the Nara heir's head off, he then nodded to the Nara and was soon spun around much like what he did with Hinata. Naruto, however, got a few more bandits than she did and was brought back to Shikamaru's side so that they could both run up and slam both their knee's into the jaw of some over confident jerk. They landed on top of him before Naruto let go of Shikamaru, "four bowls, my final offer, or else I'm telling the Hokage what happened in Suna with a certain red head there," he smirked.

 

Shikamaru growled but relented to the deal, "fine, but I still have dirt on you too, Naru, don't forget that," he said and started throwing punches and kicks like they were going out of style.

 

Naruto grinned and ducked between some bandits legs to get to his nest target, Lee. This was when Kurama chimed in,  **"Naruto, this time it's going to be a little different because Lee was born with so little chakra that he seems to have none at all."** The started,  **"you're going to have to hold on for about two minutes, maybe more, because I will eventually be giving this kid more chakra than he's had in his life, and you're going to start to feel a slight drain on your own stores because of all this running around."**

 

Naruto smirked,  _"well, as long as I've got a little bit in me, I won't go down without a fight. I am an Uzumaki after all, just because we can't use chakra in here means nothing to us._ _The Uzumaki spirit will burn like fire!"_ The blond said with renewed vigor an reached Lee in seconds, jumping up delivering a skull splitting axe kick on the guy who was trying to attack Lee from behind without the boy noticing. He landed and took a hold of Lee's hand, surprising the boy, "Lee, you've got me for a while, so hold on tight," he said in a cheerful voice.

 

Lee didn't understand what he meant, but nodded all they same, he turned back to fight with one hand, since Naruto was holding his other. He started to feel a burning sensation enter his veins and he felt as if he was boiling from the inside out, he wanted to scream out in pain, but knew he couldn't, so he used this new found pain to fight. _Whatever this is, I will use it to fuel my flames of youth and make the will of fire in me burn that much brighter!"_ He thought, and if you looked closely, you would have sworn on your own graves that Lee's eye brows was also catching on fire since the flames from his eyes were burning just that brightly. It freaked out some of the bandits that he was fighting, which made it that much easier to defeat most of them, by the time the burning sensation had settled down, Lee was fighting with both hands and no bandit could get away from him, Shikamaru, Sai, and Hinata were also fighting in the same manner, but in their own unique styles, the chakra that they were gifted seeming to guid them in new ways of fighting. Gaining new styles and feeling out new moves, the four moved forth as if they had been running in a race for miles hand someone had handed them cap of life (cheese, yes I know). Meanwhile, Naruto was panting, Kurama was correct, after giving Lee some of Kurama's chakra, he was feeling drained and was nearing his limit. Lucky for him, they were just about out of bandits, the only ones left are the three mentioned when they first met the bandits,, Naruto hadn't seen them enter the fighting at all, but knew they had to be in the area somewhere. He was also looking for a red head, but not just red hair, Uzumaki red, the reddest hair there was, he was started to sway in his steps, but he kept going until there was no one left for him to fight. Turning around to the battle field before them, he fell to his knees, trying to catch his breath, he was happy to see that he was able to help out his friends. He was ready to take a few minutes to himself when he felt a shadow  loom over him, he barely had time to see who it was before he blacked out, the sounds of his friends fighting fading away in the background of the darkness. 

 

* * *

 

**Sometime later-Unknown location**

 

Naruto woke up to the sound of something being dragged across the dirt. He knew that it was him, as the feeling slowly came back to him. But where were is friends?

 


	7. Game over

**Meanwhile-Hokage tower**

 

It's been a little under six hours now since the test started and Shikaku was starting to get worried about his son and his new teammates. The test that he had designed was made to test their skills in tacking, hiding, info gathering, spying, retrieval, and stealth. He knew that his son would most likely figure this all out in maybe four hours or so after they found the first clue that he placed in the package, he knew that his son would most likely tell the others not to open the package, which was why he made it so that it's content could just be felt out and guessed. However, since it's going on six hours now, almost seven, within all this time, they have not seen or heard not one thing from his new charges, and that was very troubling to the Nara. Yamato wasn't doing much better himself, Shikaku had told him that there were bandits out in the areas the kids would need to search in, but what he lacked to tell the ex-ANBU agent was that the Sandime was the one to hire those bandits. Shikaku trusted his kage with his life, don't get him wrong, but what kage would hire bandits for a simple genin test? Yes the group was unusual and larger than those in the past, but still, things seemed to be off some how. He didn't know how, but he knew it was. And now here he is, standing in the Sandime's office, staring at a gray haired kid with bright-dark pink eyes and a scar under his left eye staring back at him. What was really going on here?

 

"Shikaku-san, thank you for joining us, I was just about to go and get you and Yamato-san. Now that you're both here, I would like to introduce to you, the former Yondime Mizukage, Yagurara Karatachi," explained the Sandime as he gestured to the gray haired boy.

 

Shikaku and Yamato looked at each other, they had heard that the Mizukage was young, but this was somewhat of a stretch, Yagura himself looked to be no more than a year older than Naruto and the others.  _'Is this really the Yondime Mizukage?'_ They both thought, Shikaku cleared his throat, "it is nice to meet you, Yondime Mizukage-sama," he said with a bow, Yamato following his lead. "What may we do for you, Hokage-sama?" He asked the aged kage.

 

Hiruzen smiled, "Shikaku-san, I was just talking to the Mizukage-" he was interrupted here.

 

"Former Mizukage, actually, after what happened in my village a few days back, I can no longer say that I should be called the Mizukage anymore. Yagura is just fine," said the gray haired boy.

 

Hiruzen nodded, "right, Yagura-san here wants to be apart of our village now, I take it that you both know what happened in his village a week ago, yes?" The old man continued, Shikaku nodded, it was a day or so after Yagura had his seal removed and left the village did the said village calm him to be dead and was in the process of selecting a new Mizukage. Shikaku heard about this and couldn't believe it, he knew that there had to be a deeper reason as to way a young boy of such importance would up and vanish like that, now that he looking at said boy in the office of his kage, he knew his thought was correct. He just wondered why the would be here, "well since then, Yagura'son has been staying with a good friend of his, in fact, it was the very person that saved him, and now that he's come to, he wants to have a fresh start. I told him that since he's so strong, he can't be just a genin, but he refuses to jump ranks, even though he's so strong."

 

Shikaku looked at the former Mizukage, the young boy nodded. "Hmm, so if you want to be apart of this village, what would you like to do? I know you want to be a genin, but all the teams have already been placed, are you going to wait until next year for the chance to be placed on a new team?" Shikaku asked.

 

"Even so, I can't imagine what you've been though to be pleasant in the least," Yamato put in his two cents. "However, working with others may give you some security again, even though you may not trust them at first."

 

"I was planning to do just that, however, it seems that your Hokage already has a place for me," Yagura stated, everyone turned back to the old man.

 

"Yes, I do," Hiruzen said as he stood up and walked around the desk he sat at, a folder in hand. he walked up to Shikaku and Yamato and held out the folder, Shikaku took it and opened it, it had Yagura's name on the pages inside and some states that the Hokage and his staffing had managed to get from the boy. Upon seeing Shikaku's and Yamato's puzzled face, the aged kage gestured for Yagura to come closer to them, "Shikaku-san, Yamato-san, allow me to introduce you to your new teammate."

 

"What!" Yamato yelled, Shikaku felt a little light headed at the thought. If Hiruzen was telling the truth, he was going to have a six kids under his command, and already they were a rag-tag team of academy misfits. His son was lazy, Naruto was said to be the class clown, Hinata the shy weakling of her family, not that he believed that she was weak by choice have you, Sai, the mystery ROOT agent, Rock Lee already had a team, but was placed on a second team as well, and now Yagura, a former kage. Was Hiruzen finally loosing what little bit of sanity that running a village required? Shikaku was about to ask just that, but Yamato beat him to it.

 

"Are you crazy?!" Yamato squeaked, "forgive my rudeness, Hokage-sama, but I just don't see how we can take on another team member right now, not that we don't want to, but we've already got a five man team, including ourselves, that makes seven. If we add another, that would make eight of us, EIGHT! We would be THE biggest genin team in all of Konoha history! Plus, don't you think five genin on one team, one of which already has a team, is a bit much?"

 

"I understand your worry, Yamato-san, however, I would like you to calm down so that I can tell you why I've done this." Hiruzen said before turning away from the two male sensei so that he could walk back to his desk and sit down. Yagura went with the flow as well, also curious as to why a kage would allow more people on a team for genin than necessary, he took up one of the three guest chairs in the room and Shikaku and Yamato took the other two. When Hiruzen felt that he had their attention again, he started his explanation, "so, a few months back, I noticed something odd with one of my ANBU teams. The team in itself was very well organized, they were smart and got the job done well enough, sometimes even in one day, they were a one of a kind team."

 

"If that's so, then what could have been wrong with them?" Yagura asked in a even tone, the other two males having the same thought.

 

"Why nothing really, however, I did have a problem with their age...you see, most ANBU members would be around maybe sixteen, seventeen, or they just hit their twenties. Yet these particular ANBU was no older than Yagura-san, maybe a year or two younger. I found that distressing in a way, even if they did use a henge or genjutsu to make themselves look older, they still had a young feel to them that was far too innocent for my liking. That was when this idea popped into my head and I set to work trying to come up with the hardest test that I could for them, to test them. That's when I noticed something." The Sandime dug into his desk for a moment and pulled out six files, "under the agreement that you guys want to keep your jobs when this is all said and done, I will allow you to know these ANBU identities."

 

Shocked, the three males didn't know what to say, after a moment, Yagura broke the silence, "but I just got to the village. Shouldn't I be watched or something first before seeing something like this? I mean, I did ask to start at genin level in the ranks, why would you-"

 

"Because you will e on a team with these select few, there's a reason why I'm allowing you to become genin and be placed on a team with barely any testing done. In fact, schooling would have been required for outsiders and more than a few test would need to be done, not to mention the boring schedule change to have some people watch you." Hiruzen shook his head, "no, no, this way will be easier on the both of us, trust me," Yagura thought he had more to say, but when he opened his mouth, no words came out, so he was silent from then. "Good, now then, the first person I want to introduces you all to code name: Panda, also known as 'The Seeker of Death', however, you all will know her as HInata Hyuuga."

 

Shikaku was sure that if he was drinking something right then, he would of spit out in shock, "u-uh, e-excuse me?"

 

 

"You maybe excused from this explanation if you want, however, I will not go over it again," the Sarutobi said as he moved onto the next folder. "Next is code name: Turtle, also known as 'Phantom Fist', this one you know as Rock Lee, the infamous taijutsu user without chakra, and Mito Gui's pupil. He was had picked by the famously known ANBU caption, Kitsune, he also picked him, as well as Panda when they first joined, the same goes for Boar and Deer."

 

Yamato looked down at the other folders, "you can't be saying that they're all just children, can you? I mean, how is it possible to have, what, three kids secretly be ANBU members, but six of them? I'm not sure if I can trust whoever is running the ANBU selection test if that happened."

 

"Well you shouldn't because I fired him the moment I found out about them all, he's now a jonin sensei like the rest of you. Maybe teaching actual children will help his eye sight improve some what," Hirzen said in an almost joking way making the other's sweat drop at hims antics. He cleared his throat, "anyways, Boar, also known as the 'One Man Human Demolition Team', is Chouji, and Deer, if you haven't guessed already, is Shikamaru."

 

"I'm not sure if I should be proud or worried about this, but I guess for now I should be proud..." Shikaku sighed when he saw his son's ANBU file.

 

"Last but not least, the caption of all of them, is Naruto, other wise known as Kitsune. His calling card is that of 'Bloody Kid Reaper', I know you all have heard of him at some point during your time outside of the village, or maybe in some reports you're seen? Well, due to some recent events, I thought that I would punish them for lying to me for so long," Hiruzen chuckled, "but it's not really a punishment, per say, I just wanted them to act like kids for a while before assuming their ANBU statues again."

 

"Wait, but if they're already in ANBU, why make them a genin team?" Yagura asked, "with such talents, they would me a grate ANBU team, the likes of which the other nations have never see, and it would secure you're villages spot as number one of centuries to come. What give?"

 

Yamato was about to reprimand Yagura for disrespecting their kage like that, but Hiruzen sighed, "alright, you got me. Another reason why I did this, was because I wanted to see how well these six would work together, but I had to take Chouji out of the equation because it would be overly suspicious if I didn't. However, I have made it o that, you wanted, Chouji could be called upon for team missions that you all may go on that are higher than a C rank, but that is if Chouji isn't already on a mission with his given team. Outside of missions, I will allow you all to do joint training with other genin and or their team, but under no circumstances are they allowed the use of ANBU abilities around the others that don't know about their ANBU statues already, or was in ANBU at some point. Also, since Yagura is join, we might as well may them know about each other since they'll be taking mission together outside of ANBU for a while," Hiruzen took out his pip and lit it.

 

"What a drag, who though I'd be saddled with a bunch of under-aged ANBU's and a Kage when I was assigned this task, troublesome," Shikaku muttered to himself. 

 

Yamato was still processing all that he's heard and remembered all the missions that he's been on with some of them He knows that Panda, Hinata, is very confident when she had on her mask, but to think that she's the same person without it was a little unsettling. If all of this was true, then this whole team thing just got a little harder, "well I guess we didn't have to give them a test after all, huh?"

 

"Oh no, the test was necessary," Hiruzen informed as he puffed on his pip.

 

"How?"

 

"Because, even though they were in the ANBU at the same time, they never really went on a mission together. Other than Boar and Deer, Panda, Turtle, and Sai have no idea how to work together, even though I don't doubt they will figure it out, they would need to work at it." The aged kage said and puffed on his pip again, "I'm also thinking about making Lee a more permanent fixture of this team, he will still go on mission with his old team, and he's still under Gai's wing, but he'll be more present with you guys." He mentally sighed, _'the elders are going to get a kick out of this later when they find out all that's happened. And with that new contract that I've managed to set up with the Soul Society, they're sending over someone that will help young Naruto-kun greatly, maybe even Yagura-san as well Lord knows that both these jinturiki need it."_   He mentally laughed, _"heehee, being a kage never felt so good more than it does at this moment!"_ Hiruzen cackled in his head 

 

The room went silent for a while before Shikaku shrugged, "okay, fine with me. So about what I came to talk to you about, it seems that the kids haven't radio'd in for a while, I was wonder, what were those bandits you hired supposed to do with them when they found them?"

 

Hiruzen looked at Shikaku with a questioning look, "hired bandits? What on earth are you talking about? I am a kage, not some idiot with power that can bring in anyone I like, why in Kami's same would I  _hire_ bandits?" He asked incredulously, "are all those naps you take making your brain go soft?"

 

Shikaku was confused, as well as Yamato, Yagura though that this was some sort of inside joke that he didn't catch, but was curious about this question. It just seemed so odd to him that it felt like planted information somehow, unless it was? "What would make you think that?" Yamato asked him after a minute went by.

 

"Because, yesterday, I came here to tell Hokage-sama about the first test that I came up with, and how I think they'll do on it, but then he told me to change it. I can't help but feeling that it was someone else that I was speaking to at the time though, I can't really remember, it's like there's some sort of fog in my mind when I try to remember details of that meeting from yesterday."

 

"I can assure you that we had no meeting yesterday, Shikaku-san," Hiruzen said in a more serious tone than before. He stood up from his desk and walked over to the window across from his desk, "but I feel that someone else was in here, someone that smells like a snake," he opened the window. "Come on, we have to go before it's too late," with that, their fire shadow jumped out of the window with all the speed and agility of a young man in his prime. 


	8. New teammates

Racing towards the spot that the kids should have been at by this point of the test, Hiruzen, the Sandime Hokage, Shikaku, Yamato, and Yagura arrived at the sight of the destroyed lake side. The ground was more than destroyed, it was over turned with holes and burn marks everywhere, any trees in the area was up-rooted and laying on their sides, and there were bodies everywhere. The bodies, of what Hiruzen guessed, were the supposed bandits that 'he' hired. It was remarkable, in a sense, to think that five kids could have caused so much damage, but with the corpses looking like a mangled mess of limbs and other body parts, organs and what not, it was no wonder they were able to get into the ANBU without anyone noticing til now. Hiruzen walked through the area, which was just bathed in blood, and tried to find any trace of the newly formed genin team being there. "Hokage-sama, I think I've got somehing!" Came the yell of Yagura.

 

Rushing over, the other three males in the area waited looked to see what the young former kage had found, "what is it, Yagura-san?" Asked Yamato.

 

Yagura opened his eyes, "there's something in the air," he said simply.

 

"The air?" Yamato said and they started sniffing the air, but they didn't smell anything other than the drying blood around them. Then of course, there was also the smell of death, which wasn't giving them much hope or insight.

 

"What is it that you smell?" Shikaku asked.

 

Yagura closed his eyes again and turned his face to the sky, "I smell a fox, it's rather strong once I got over the scent of blood and corpses around us. I also smell some half-lings, but it's faint, almost as if they were just created." He got a thoughtful look on his face for a second while the others wondered what he meant by 'half-lings', but kept their mouths shut since he might be the only one to lead them to the others. After another second of thought, Yagura nodded, "it's this way," he said jumping off into a seemingly random direction, the aged kage and the two sensei following behind him. 

 

As they jumped into the trees, trying to keep up with Yagura's fast pace, Shikaku was lost in thought.  _"If Hokage-sama didn't hire bandits to test a team that be believed to be elites, then who did I see in his office yesterday? It had to be him, but then again, someone could have just snuck into the office in a henge or a very strong genjutsu, but why? Who would have the information about this team, and who would want to see them fail before they even became an official team? It's like someone is trying to get back at these kids, but why? I know that when you're in ANBU, you have a mask that's unique to you and no one outside of it, and most inside of it don't know who's behind the mask that one wears, so for someone to target them pacifically without knowing who they are under their mask, then they would.....no, but who? And how that person have that information on them? Hmmm, I'v got a bad feeling about this, let's just hope I'm wrong."_ He thought as he kept following behind Yagura and their kage.

 

* * *

**With Naruto and the others**

 

Naruto opened his eyes to see that he was in a dark place, but he was still being dragged somewhere. He still felt like he was in a bag of some sort, or maybe it was something else, he didn't know, much did he care, he just wished that the person doing it would take it easy on all the bumps he's making him it. Trying his best not to focus on all the rocks that has met with his head in the past five minutes that he's been awake, he tries to focus and find his friends and teammates. Closing his eyes, not that it wasn't dark enough already, he focused, he looked  around with his mind's eye to see if he could sense them, he came across some familiar chakra signatures, which he was starting to realize was his old friends in the ANBU. First, he felt was Panda, he had seen the way that she had worked her way into the ranks, somehow managing to pass the test given by the ANBU head commander, she was a skilled fighter, though her fighting style screamed Hyuuga, he attitude didn't. He picked her to train under him for a few months to help her out and welcome into the ranks, he wasn't sure if she had planned to stay or not, but he knew that his training would help her out somewhat even if she didn't. Next he felt a chakra signature that he could not deny was Lee's, who he also knew was Turtle, Yes he knew that Lee was Turtle while in the ANBU, the only way he wouldn't have known it was the taijutsu user is if he had never meet the guy when he was five. He also trained him in some new fighting styles that he thought would come handy in a pinch of the bushy brow'd boy, it was also a little fun to beat the kid that was a year older than him. Next was Shikamaru, his chakra was sort of a dark one, but due to what clan he came from, it was a given. Sai's chakra was the only one out of the bunch that he could identify right away, his chakra was, if it was possible, sad. It was odd to thing that someone's chakra could be sad, he wondered about the boy more times than anyone he had trained before, there was a darkness inside of Sai that Naruto wanted to look into, but hadn't gotten the chance to so it yet.

 

Now that he had found the others, he was thinking of a way to get a message to them. he closed his other senses and thought,  _"everyone's close by, but since I'm not able to see anyone or where we are going, I'm at a big disadvantage right now. This must not be apart of the test, because I would have heard of something like this happening to another team, even if that team wasn't a special team of maybe chunin or even jonin, I would have heard of it. Not even an ANBU training mission is anything like this, so what's the deal with this? I don't get it, why would bandits know about the Uzumaki dome technique? Let alone pull it off with other's not noticing it going up around them...unless it was already up? But a dome of that size would take a full grown Uzumaki to pull it off and for so long, what other clan out there can do that?"_

 

Here, Kurama answered,  **"none, unless it was another branch of the Uzumaki clan, even then, it would take a major tole on that person."** He informed the blond,  **"by the way, you're heading away from the village, from what I gather, we're about three villages away from the village and it seems that we're only going farther. Unless they want to take you guys out of the country, then chances of someone catching up to us is slime."**

 

 _"Oh Kyuu, you're so opportunistic, who knows, maybe they'll take us to a rainbow and drown is in all the bright colors next."_ Naruto thought sarcastically to the fox, he mentally sighed,  _"listen, can you pull the others into my mind? I want to talk to them and what they know, they might have woken up before me and could have heard somethinf from the bandits that could help. And..."_

 

**"What's the matter kit?"** Kurama asked, sensing the blonds hesitation.

 

_"I don't think these guys are your average bad guys."_

 

**"Oh jeez, really? What was your first clue? Because I could have sworn that mines was the big ass dome that was blocking our chakra!"**

 

Naruto rolled his eyes at the fox,  _"no use getting crabby fox, now listen, I noticed this earlier. You remember the big guy we saw? Well I sensed that there wa some sort of dark chakra coming from him, as well as two others, and the dome seemed o have another feel to it, similar to the other three's own. Do you know what that means?"_

 

**"Hmm, well it could me than they came from the dark side, or they could have something wrong with their chakra."**

 

 _"Right, their cha-dark side of what?"_ Naruto asked wondering what the fox meant.

 

 **"Don't worry about all that right now, but you're right, their chakra is pretty strange. I've never felt anything like it before in my life. It's like it's theirs, but at the same time, not."** The fox thought for a moment before they both felt that Naruto's body wasn't being dragged anymore,  **"kit, I think this is it. Whatever these guys are planning to do with you, you should pay close attention now, I also feel the presences of** _that_ person near by.....I'll keep an open connection so you guys can talk to each other." The fox fell silent then as he waited for something to happen.

 

Naruto looked around in the darkness of...well, what ever it was that he was in, and felt people walking about around him. He waited for another minute or so before someone too the blind fold from his eyes after dumping him on the floor. He blinked a few times and noticed a few things, one, his hands were tied behind his back, two, he was in some sort of dark room with tables, test tubes with liquids in them, monitors and every ones in a while, some electricity would shoot between two rods. It was a lab in every sense of the word, and Naruto didn't like labs, almost as much as he didn't like hospitals, but at lest in a hospital there is medicine to help the injured, but a lab was another story all together. He looked around and saw his teammates and friends also in the lab, they had been dumped and tied up just like he was now, he didn't want to think of why this was happening, but it was going to be a pain in the ass to escape. He felt when Kurama made the mental connection with his friends and he called out to them to make sure that they were all okay, it turns out that they had went through thee same experience he had a few seconds before hand. He was glade that they were all alright, but before he could think to as them if they heard anything on the way out here, the door to the dark room/lab opened and the person he had hoped upon high to never lay eyes upon again, walked in with a smile on his face. 

 

"Well, well, well, looky what we have here. It seems that not only did I get the Kyuubi jinutriki for my little side project, but also his friends as well, goody for me," chuckled Kabuto Yakushi. Naruto has had the displeasure of meeting the little worm some years back when he was just starting in ANBU. Kabuto had found an interest in Kurama's abilities, not the actual fox himself, and managed to follow the blond all over the place while he was on missions, gathering all sorts of info on the blond that could help in his little 'side project'. When he finally found out about Kabuto's spying ways, they fought a savage battle that left the area they were in unrecoverable, Kabuto had barely made it out alive, but managed to get a few samples here and there. Without knowing, Naruto had given Kabuto all the information he needed for whatever it was that he was doing and he set out to track the blond down again, even going so far as to impersonate a kage and set up this elaborate plan to lead him to this very lab. However, the one thing that Kabuto wasn't counting on was the fact that Naruto shared his chakra with his friends, he wantn't to know what kind of changes that they were undergoing and he wanted to document them for his notes, it would add nicely to the notes he already had, but. But he could take those notes later, for right now, he had a jinturiki to take care of.

 

"Kabuto Yakurshi, what do I owe to this nightmare?" Naruto growled out.

 

Kabuto chuckled, "I just came here to see if you would reconsider my offer from the last time we met, hm? It would help if you came along willingly, if not, well...you're friends are always available. I mean, they did take in your chakra without dying, so it's in our best interest to see that they don't, right?"

 

Naruto growled at the white haired male, "what makes you think that they will die?"

 

Kabuto shrugged his shoulder and walked over to the kneeling blond, he knelt down and took the blond's chin in his hand, "I was just thinking of your friends. Unless your time in ANBU as actually made you a cold hearted son of a bitch, then you will take my words into consideration. This location was specially designed to seal off every one inside from everyone outside, if you think you can flair your chakra enough to get someone's attention, they you'll just be wasting your time. Now what's it going to be?" Naruto spit in Kabuto's face, Kabuto, still smiling, whipped the offending fluid off his face, he stood up and walked away, "have it your way." He turned to the ones that bought Naruto and his friends to the location they were at, "take them to the waiting room, I'll be with you in a minute."

 

The big guy from before grabbed a hold of Naruto and hoisted him up onto his shoulder, "looks like it's time for you guys to go down for a nap," he laughed.

 

"Oh! And Jurobo?" Kabuto stated before leaving the room comletely, the said mad looked over at the white haired male, "if could make sure that you're in separate rooms for me, then that would be grate." He said as he walked out the room, his voice trailing behind him, "wouldn't want them to come up with any bright ideas other wise. Following Kabuto's orders, the man, Jurobo, knocked out Naruto before placing him into a room somewhere in the unknown lab.

 

* * *

 

**Sometime later**

 

After some more time had passed, Naruto started to wake up again, when he came to this time, he found that he was strapped to a table and his clothes had disappeared. The only thing covering him now was a white sheet, his wrist and ankles were strapped to the table by some sort of metal clamp and his mouth was covered with duck tape. He was in a brightly lit room, but the only thing he could see of it was the white walls and equally white ceiling, he could see the top have of the door when it opened, revealing Kabuto in white clothing. "I'm glad to see that you're awake now, Naruto, it seems that everything was a success," he informed him. He pulled the gloves he was wearing tighter over his fingers and smirked, "now then, let's begin, shall we?"

 

Naruto didn't bother talking as he focused on where Kabuto was,  _"Kurama, what did this teme do to me while I was out?"_ He thought to the Fire Kitsune.

 

**"Do you want good news? Or do you want bad news?"**

 

_"How bad is the bad news?"_

 

 **"...."** Kurama was silent as he waited for Naruto to give him an answer.

 

_"Fine, I'll take the bad news, what did he do to me?"_

 

 **"Well..."** Kurama cleared his throat,  **"he seems to have injected you with....something."**

 

 _"What was it?"_ He asked, but the fox was silent,  _"Kurama! What that teme do to me? I need to know, please. And what about my friends? Are they alright?"_

 

**"Yes, I checked the link, they're all holding up alright, mainly because his main focus is on you and not them. However, he has been running some sore of test on them. Lee said that ever since they woke up in the new rooms, Kabuto and his goons have been testing their chakra levels, it's mostly seeing how my chakra is affecting them, making notes about it. Although I don't know what they're going this for, one thing that I can say is, we've got to get you guys out of here before that Orochi-teme catches wind of what his lackey has been doing down here."**

 

Naruto thought for a moment, but his thoughts was interrupted when a sharp pain ripped through his lower abdomen. "My apologies, it seems that the little guy doesn't like it's knew friends," Kanuto stated from somewhere in the room, Naruto tried to lift life his head to look around, but he couldn't. It seems that his head was strapped down as well, he couldn't even move it, Kabuto came back into view, wiping his hands on a towel, "you seem to be doing well other wise. I'm surprised by that, I thought that you would be in more discomfort," he spoke in an almost disappointed tone.

 

"Wahf wai vorr ot dwil muu!" Naruto yelled from behind the duck tape.

 

Kabuto chucked, "sorry, you must want to say something, here, allow me," he said as he removed the tape.

 

Now free of the tape, Naruto spoke, "where are my friends? What are you doing to us? Let them go!"

 

"Hmm, I would, but then what would be the fun in that?" Kabuto said in a mock thinking pose, "but, since I'm done with you, I might as well tell you what has happened." He walked out of the blond's sight, he must have pressed some button, because the table started moving downwards, the first thin he noticed was a large window on the wall in front of him. Through it, he couldn't see anything, but then the lights came on and he saw....

 

 

**To be continued......**


	9. Results

Naruto looked through the glass in front of him in horror. There, just beyond the frame were his friends and new teammates. "What are you have you done to them?" Naruto asked through gritted teeth, nothing seemed wrong with his friends, per say, just that they were all strapped down to beds and hooked up to monitors. None of them made a move. Naruto's never seen Lee so still before in his life, even when the taijutsu user was asleep, he would still move around a bit, proving just how hyper he really was. But now he was still, too still for Naruto's liking. 

 

"Who me? Oh nothing, I just have them under sedation. I wouldn't dare disrupt the things that you have already put in place already, it really is a work of art, what you did to them. You own friends," Kabuto smirked, then laughed when he saw Naruto's sneer, "calm down, calm down, they will be just fine. However, they won't be the same as before, that's for sure," he laughed again.

 

Naruto growled, " What do you mean? What did you do!" He started to yell, "answer me!"

 

Kabuto shook his head, "tsk, tsk, not me, you. But you'll find out soon enough," he said as he disappeared from Naruto's sight again. "It seems that your leaf friends are here to save you all apparently, and not a moment too soon." The glasses wearing male stated, the sound of clinking glass against more glass was heard from behind Naruto, but he was not in a position to see what the older boy was doing behind his back, which irritated him to no end. Finally, Kabuto reappeared before the blond container, he had a syringe in his had that was filled with some strange blue liquid that gave off an equally strange smell as Kabuto tested the needed. "This will ensure that you don't ruin our plans too soon, Orochimaru-sama will be looking forward to his next vessel soon enough," he smirked as he injected the blue liquid into Naruto's neck as the blond tried to struggle to get away. But with the straps on the bed holding him down tight, he was unable to move more than an inch away from the other and felt a pain rip through his whole body starting from his neck, the pain was so intense that he could no longer contain his scream and let out an ear piercing stretch. "There, that should do it," Kabuto said as he stepped back from the tied down blond, "now be a good boy and wait for your friends to come and pick you up, okay? I'll be seeing you again real soon," he smiled.

 

Naruto wanted to curse Kabuto, he wanted to scream and yell at him, but most importantly, he wanted to kill him. Rip him limb from limb and give him the same level, if not more, of pain that he was feeling right now. But he soon found that the more he struggled, the weaker he became, his vision was growing ever darker and he could not stand the feeling. It kept reminding him of something else that he didn't want to remember. Another time when he was weak and helpless, when h was unable to stop something from happening to him over and over again...but he didn't know what that was. He didn't remember any time such as that, if anything, this felt like the first time he had ever felt this way, so what was this feeling he was having? All too soon, his vision left him and he was floating along in darkness once more, the last thing that came to his mind was  _"damn snake"_ and then he passed out for good.

* * *

**With Shikaku and others**

 

It has barely been a full day and half a night when Shikaku and the Hokage were able to find the place that Naruto and the others were taken to. Yagura had managed to get them close enough to the base until they walked into a trap. The countless number of experimented on men were jumping out from their hiding places to fight the two Kages, a jonin commander, and an ex-ANBU, but the fight within itself was not much of one. It was clear that the forces that came to fight them were nothing more than cannon fodder and was meant to go down easily, almost as if the enemy themselves were meant to dispose of the 'failed' experiments for the scientist.  _"No," S_ hikaku thought,  _"that's exactly what it is, and there is only one person out there that would be low enough to do such a thing to another human being."_ Shikaku followed his line of thought until it proved to be correct, not even a full five miles away from the area of their previous fighting did they find a secret base that could have belonged to none other than Orochimaru, the legendary Snake Sannin. Carefully, they found a way in and managed to avoid most traps and deactivate a few more once back-up arrived, they had sent for it when they suspected that they were being watched before the fighting started. It was a good thing they did too because once they reached the lab, they knew without a doubt that this place once belonged to Orochimaru and if they searched it, they would find many, many unpleasant things here. It was also here that Yagura said that Naruto's and Naruto's teammate's scents were the strongest, so they had no choice but to risk going through the base slowly. Orochimaru was a snake, after all, if one wished to summon an animal after passing their test, they would most likely start acting like them to some degree. Which was why some of the villages wondered if the Nara's had a contract with Sloths and not the Deers they tend to look after. The Anbu looked through every room and found everything that would associate the snake with the lab. Experiments, prisoners, some who lost their will long ago, some with severe PTSD and a very, very few who still had a sain mind left over from the experiments, but they were also quite broken and barely alive as it was. Taking pity on them all, the ANBU gave them a merciful death and went back to gathering up abandoned documents and anything else that they could salvage from the lab until they came to a door. The door was all white, double doors with no handles on them, just metal rectangle plates where the handles should be. Sort of like the doors you would see before entering the operating room of a hospital, but the difference from those doors and these were that they had blood spattered all over them and scratches all along the surroundings of the door. The blood was somewhat dry and most of the prisoners had some limbs missing, it made sense.

 

With caution guiding them, the ANBU entered the hallway beyond the battered doors to see what they could find. It wasn't much different than what they found outside, only, the people inside this area seemed to be already dead and hardly recognizable as humans anymore. Just as they were about to give up on finding the missing genin in the lab, they heard a noise. It was faint, but it sounded almost as if someone was calling out for help. The ANBU caption of the team in this area wore a cat mask and had long purple hair, "caption," one of her subordinates, a man with a dog mask, said, "this could be a trap, should we radio the others for back-up?"

 

The ANBU captain shook her head, "no, not yet, we'll proceed with caution and secure the area. Be ready for any and all attacks. We're going in," she said as she slowly started to move down the only other hallway present beyond the bloody and scratched up double doors. They moved as one, heading down the hall, they raised their guard when the lights in this hall came on when the lights in the other hallways remained off when they were searching it. They made them wonder even more what danger they could be walking into as they got closer and closer to the end of the long hall. This new, well-lit hall was different from the others, it was longer and there only seemed to be two doors in this one rather than the dozens they had passed and checked in the other one. As they neared the first door that was on their right, there was a large two-way mirror that was filled with beds, rows, and rows of beds. A lot of them were empty, but there was one wasn't, and laying on top of that bed closest to the window, was a girl. She was small, probably no older than maybe three to four years, from what they could see, she had pale skin with long blond hair, they couldn't tell much more than that without getting close to her. 

 

"Oh Kami, there must have been hundreds of people here," said another ANBU, this time with a bird maks. 

 

"If that's so, then what happened to the rest of them, and why was she the only one spared?" Asked the ANBU with the dog mask.

 

"It does not matter, secure the girl and check the area for anymore. If she's still alive, we'll take her back with us and hand her over to the research department to check her out there. But for now, Dog, Bird, and Boar secure the room this room, Lion and I will take this last one. Radio me if you find anything interesting." Caption Cat instructed, the three said ANBU saluted and went to go check the room that the one girl was in, making to check the door for traps before entering it fully. While they did that, Cat and Lion went into the last room and checked it for traps, once it was secured, they checked it for documents and other things that provided information. This room, unlike the others, was all white and devoid of any other color other than the steal table that was filled with multip test tubes of many colorful liquids still boiling hot even though the fire under them was turned off. This told her that either the occupant of the area had either just made his/her escape from her team recently enough that they would be found in a matter of hours or the thing that kept the fire burning had just run out. She was inclined to believe the latter, but the former was still very possible. She touched the button on her neck and radioed this in, "all patrolling units, be on the lookout for any potential people that are escaping or have escaped within the last few hours of our arrival," she stated. When she got a confirmation from one of the people in the unit she called upon, she turned back to look around the room for possible clues and notes. 

 

"Oi, captain, I think I found the jinturiki that's supposed to be apart of the team we're looking for," Lion called out to her.

 

"The jinturiki?" Cat asked, she turned around to were Lion was standing, there was a metal table that was slanted upwards in front of a window. She walked over to it, "how is it?" She asked, referring to the blond tired to the tilted table. 

 

"He is unresponsive, he seems to be in an unconscious state." Lion informed her, "he also has quite the fever, it's almost as if his body was on fire."

 

Cat looked at the blond container behind her maks, uncaring eyes gazed at the pale blond skin, thin frame, but most of her focus was on the whisper marks. After another moment of staring, Lion was about to ask her something, but then she turned away from both of them. She could see that the blond had been through a recent fight before being brought to the lab, that was due to the still somewhat fresh scratches and bumps that was still all over the boy's body. His writs had rope burns on them, and there also seemed to be cuts on his wrist from where he tried to escape the table's hold on him. "Release him from the table and take him to Sandime-sama, I'll go look for the others," she said and started walking away from the jinturiki as fast as she could.

 

"Um, Captain, I've already found them," Lion said making his captain turn to face him. He could tell that she hated the blond container with a passion, he didn't know why though, but he guessed that it only had to do with the thing that the blond was forced to live with for the rest of his life. Either way, her anger was unprecedented, and it clouded her view whenever it came to him, so everyone in ANBU Black Opt. tries to stray away from that topic whenever they can, especially around her. Lion sighed and turned to point at the two-way mirror that his captain had missed because of her blind, but somewhat well hidden, rage towards the blond container. Beyond the mirror were the kids that they were looking for, all stapped down to a bed the same as Naruto, but their beds were in the proper laying order, unlike Naruto's. He started to wonder what could have happened during the Kyuubi attack to make his captain so narrow-minded when it came to this one child, even though he was a special case, the child did nothing wrong. What could a barely hour old baby do against a whole village? This logic is what drove Lion to do his job well without judgment, but he was smart enough not to ask said question thoughtlessly, instead, he just made a  _wood_ clone of himself that went into the next from through the door that was only a few feet away from the mirror/window. He himself busied himself by trying to get Naruto free from the table, then wrapping the fallen white sheet around the blond's body, since the person that brought the blond here had taken away his clothes. 

 

Lion's clone found that the kids that are apart of Naruto's team were in much the same way as Naruto was, the same rope burns and cuts on their wrists and ankles. They had white sheets covering their sleeping forms, they were hooked up to a monitor that showed their vitals. Hinata's showed that she was a little low on chakra at the moment, but otherwise fine. Shikamaru and Lee seemed to be a little on the warm side, while Sai, if he remembered right, was almost on fire, just like Naruto. Sai's pale face had a dark tint to his cheeks and stood out against his usual complexion, he was sweating profusely and he was also breathing as if had just run a hundred laps around the village. His monitor told of an elevated heart rate, "well that's no good," he said as he started unhooking the others from their machines, but left Sai's alone for now. It seems that once they were unhooked, whatever it was that put them all in their coma-like state was reversed and they all woke up, except for one. Sai was still hooked up and with the readings from the machine, he wasn't sure unhooking him without a medic around was a good idea.

 

Cat walked in a moment later, "why haven't you unhooked him yet?" She asked looking at Lion.

 

Lion turned to her, "look at his readings. He seems to be suffering from an extra high fever, I'm going to try and cool him down with a water jutsu, but I don't think to move him would be a good idea without a medic close by."

 

"What's wrong with him?" Cat asked as she looked at the sickly boy.

 

"He's got an extremely high fever and his heart is beating too fast for my liking." Lion stated as he made hand signs and water gathered around the around them, he placed his now water encased hands over Sai and let them cool him down. "It seems to be working, but I don't know for how long, and there's no telling how long he's been like this, we need to get him to a hospital right away."

 

Cat nodded, "I'll call for back-up with a medic, you stay here and take care of him with the others while I check in with the rest of the team." Lion nodded his acknowledgment of the order and she left, once she was out of the room and back in the hallway, she entered the first room that they passed before reaching Naruto's team. "Report," she said as soon as she saw the three ANBU she assigned to look after this room."

 

The first ANBU to turn to her was Boar, a tall but slightly filled out man that seemed to fit his mask well. "Captain, I think you may want to see this one for yourself," he said as turned to his captain. He continued once he sensed her curiosity, he stepped aside so that she could get a good look at what he was talking about. It was the girl they saw through the window earlier, she was awake now, and boy did she shock them because sitting there on the bed was a confused, five-year-old, female Naruto. Instead of spiky hair, the girl's hair was straight with small waves as it fell down her back, her skin was pale instead of tan like Naruto's, but her eyes were the same color as the blond's deep ocean blue. She was rather small now that they got a closer look at her, but if all this was not enough, the girl had the exact same whisker marks as Naruto's on her own cheeks, this could not have been some sort of coincidence. They needed to take this girl to the research lab by in Konoha as soon as possible so that their questions could be answered, but for now, they needed to let the Hokage know about this. Cat took a moment to collect herself, she knew that Naruto had no other family, he was an orphan with no relatives to take care of him. But if that was so, how is it that this girl looks like his exact copy? "Take her to the Hokage-sama and tell him everything you have found out while in this room," she ordered.

 

"Hai!" All three said, Bird gathered the girl up in his arms and all three prepared to leave.

 

"By the way, do any of you know her name?" Cat asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

 

Dog shook his head, "no, she has no name, it seems that the person in charge of this area didn't give out names to anyone that laid in those beds before. It seems that they did nothing more than to just keep them alive for as long as they can while they ran test after test after on all of them," there was a bitterness to Dog's voice. Cat paid it no mind, she might have been upset too.

 

"What happened to the others, are there more like her?" Cat asked.

 

"Thay most of them died a little after they were born, those that didn't, were strapped down to these beds in a forced sleep until caretaker came to look after them. After a month, the first batch all died and they had to start over from scratch once they gathered enough women together to do so." Boar said as he handed over a file he found lying abandoned on the desk at the very back of the room, he gave the file to Cat for her to read as he continued, "They did the same thing over again, but this time, they would have someone come around and hold some of the children and treat them as normal human beings, while the rest went through the same treatment as the first. This time only the ones that weren't cared for died and rest lived much longer, until the experiments started that is. This went on for a few years until about four years ago when this girl was born. Looks like this little girl managed to be the first one that was born in the lab itself and not taken from some orphanage or unsuspecting couple."

 

Cat looked up at Boar with this new, "her parents aren't listed, here," she observed. She closed the file and handed back to Board, "how was she born and where did she come from?"

 

"Well, the 'where' part isn't too hard," Boar said as he re-read some of the information he had before, "they managed to get their hands on someone's DNA and injected it into an egg. The mother from which the egg came from was a failed experiment that was also not named, meaning that the mother was dead long before the girl was conceived." Boar looked up at Cat then over to where Bird had taken the little girl to one of the empty beds to gauge her skills of a normal three-year-old. It seems that she was not taught these things and only sat on the table as Bird looked her over, at least she knew how to sit upright and hold up her own head, so maybe she just didn't understand what he was doing? She seemed alert enough so that was something. "We don't know who the father is, it could be anybody, but still, those looks don't just belong to anyone, and the whisker marks too..." He trailed off.

 

"The jinturiki is twelve, around the time that this girl would have been conceived, he was nine." Cat stated matter of factly, "what you are suggesting would be that this girl is the daughter of a one Naruto Uzumaki, a twelve-year-old genin."

 

"But that's just it, Captain, how else do you explain it?" Dog chipped in, "we read just about every file and folder we could get our hands on in the short amount of time it took us to wake up the girl. We sealed all the files away in a scroll for later, but in the files that we could find on this girl, it seems that any and all information about her parents were either deleted or undocumented. Either way, we're at a loss."

 

Cat nodded, "we'll ask for a DNA test done on her when we get back. You can tell Hokage-sama that we found the missing genin in the room that Lion and I checked, but one of them needs a medic. Dismissed," she said and they nodded. Bird got the signal to leave from Board and he picked up the girl in his arms, she didn't seem to be very used to that kind of thing but did nothing to stop the Bird mask wearing ANBU from picking her up in his arms once more. Before the two disappeared from the room for good, the little girl looked over at Cat for a second before disappearing, but that one second seemed like a lifetime, and Cat felt as if her very soul was looked into when her eye meets the girl's familiar blue ones. She was frozen to the spot a second more after the room was emptied except for her, the vacant beds, and the desk at the very back of the room. Deciding to go back to her job, Caption Cat checked the room over again to make sure that nothing was left out of place or behind before she left the room to go back to check on Lion.

* * *

**With Shikaku and the rest**

 

"Why were they taken here? Why would that mad scientist want them now?" Yamato ponded out loud as he watched the ANBU go through the abandoned lab, gathering documents and such. There was yet to be a living survivor that was brought to them to interrogate, it was disconcerting, but then again, so was dealing with the snake sannin himself.

 

"I'm sure that whatever the reason, it can't be good," Hiruzen said as he watched his forces look through his former student's things. Suddenly, a small collection of wind and leaves signaled that someone was coming to them when the jutsu settled, three ANBU, one holding a small child, appeared. Hiruzen looked them over, this was the team that he had assigned to go with Cat, "did you find them?" He asked, addressing the more pressing issue first, upon hearing his words, Yamato, Yagura, Shikaku, and even most of the close by ANBU listened to what the newly arrived team had to say.

 

"Hai, Hokage-sama, Captain Cat reported that she, along with second in command, Lion, have found the missing genin," Dog reported before walked forth to hand the sealed away files to his Kage, "we also found this in the room next to where we found the missing genin. These are files containing detailed reports on one of the projects that Orochimaru was conducting."

 

"From what I've been able to hear through the grapevine, is that Orochimaru conducted many horrid experiments in his day." Yagura pipped up from next to the old fire shadow, a thoughtful look on his young features, "I assume he's still doing as such...what makes these reports any different?"

 

It was a bit cold and slightly mean, but due to the situation, there was no other way to be, if you didn't want to lose your lunch. Boar spoke up, "because there's a survivor from this one," he said gesturing to Bird and the little female Naruto clone.

 

Hiruzen's eyes widen, the girl was wrapped up in long white sheets, but he could tell that she was most likely very thin. She looked every bit as the boy he thought of as a grandson in everything but blood, "how?" He asked, still shocked at seeing the little girl.

 

"She's a result of the experiment that Orochimaru was conducting, her file says that she was born premature, but seems intelligent enough. I don't know what the Snake was trying to accomplish, but if he left her behind when he left, then it must not have succeeded," Boar stated. 

 

"We don't know who the mother is, the file does name her parents, but aside from the obvious, we'll probably need a DNA test to confirm a running theory we seem to share." Bird spoke up, the little girl, all the while, was just watching everyone talk, like she was memorizing each and every one of their faces for later reference.

 

Shikaku eyed the girl with curiosity, he moved closer to the ANBU, "what about my son? Is he alright?" He asked them, his eyes still on the girl. _"Is she somehow a clone or something? She couldn't be his daughter, he would have only been nine or ten by the time she was born, but why is it possible for her to look so much like him?"_

 

"We are not sure, Nara-sama, Captain Cat did not tell us in detail who needed the medic, she just said that they needed one," Dog replied.

 

"Hm," Shikaku said nodding to the ANBU. He turned his eyes back to the girl again and was momentarily taken aback by her staring back at him. Her eyes were so blue, it was like he was looking into Naruto's eyes close up, which he's never done before, he started to turn away from her so he could ask the Dog to take him to his son. Since his clan worked with medicine and ointments made for healing, he always carried some with him, he also knew a little medical ninjutsu, as did most of the members of his clan. But when he was turning away, the little girl reached a small hand out to him, surprising Bird a little. He looked between Shikaku and the girl, wondering what he should do, before he could ask, Shikaku seemed to come to a decision, "I'll take her with me then." He said lazily, but you could tell that there was a hint of curiosity in his voice, he turned to Dog, "can you take me to them?" Dog nodded before he shushinned the three of them to the area Shikaku wanted to go.

 

"Hokage-sama, is it safe to leave that girl with Shikaku-san?" Yamato asked.

 

"I agree, she could be a trap, or at the very least, the girl could be some sort of ticking time bomb waiting to go off at any moment," Yagura stated.

 

Hiruzen shook his head as he watched them go, "if so, then Shikaku can handle the situation accordingly. He is a commander of two divisions after," he said, he turned to the other ANBU in the room, "who here knows medical ninjutsu?" He asked, knowing that there were not many in the ANBU ranks that actually did know much medical ninjutsu, he was starting to regret his decision on delining Tsunade's suggestion on teaching medical ninjutsu to the younger generation when he had the chance to accept it. Maybe then there wouldn't have been so many casualties. 

 

"Hokage-sama, I know some medical ninjutsu. Even though I am still learning, I have been told I am quite good," said one ANBU with a rabbit mask.

 

Rabbit was a little young to be in ANBU, but then again, he did show skills that were ANBU level and he only seemed to be getting stronger, from what Hiruzen read in his file, Kitsune had just recently started apprenticing this young boy a few months back. That was before Hiruzen found out about the other kids that had managed to sneak past his recruiter, he really needed to check the ANBU ranks himself to make sure there were no other kids in the ranks, like Naruto, Shikamaru, and Chouji. with that said, he nodded his head with a small smile. "Alright then, do your best," he said and the ANBU bowed before hurrying off to follow Dog.

 

* * *

**With Naruto and the others**

 

Shikamaru, Hinata, and Lee ware all wide awake, telling Captain Cat had happened to them earlier that day. Hinata was having trouble looking around at anyone other than her two conscious teammates as she kept her bed sheets around her to cover her naked form, and to keep away the cold of the room. "And then before we knew anything else, that guy just knocked us all out and put up here where we woke up to find you guys," Shikamaru explained, also keeping the sheets around his bare body.  _"Why are we all nake! From what I can tell from where Naruto's laying in the bed I was in, and from where Sai's still sleeping, they're both naked like Lee, Hinata, and me. Whoever that Kabuto guy thinks he is, he's nothing but a pervert in my book from now on!"_ He mentally ranted as he pulled the sheets a little tighter around his frame,  _"and why is it that it's so cold in here?! It feels like its winter time and the heater just died!"_

 

Cat nodded, "very well, that will be all for now, I can take you three to Nara-sama and Yamato now, maybe we can find some warm close for you three to ware once we reach. It is a little chilly in here," she commented, noting how Hinata was starting to shake a little, however, as an ANBU their uniforms have a seal with climate control. 

 

"Excuse me, miss, but could you tell us what's wrong with our friends?" Lee asked just as polite as always whenever a serious situation come up. 

 

"We don't know," Cat finally said after a minute of silence, "but...we're going to try and get them to the hospital as soon as we can."

 

"Then we're the medic, shouldn't there be one here by now?" Shikamaru asked since he was in ANBU, he knew that if they were to be going into a situation such as this, the first thing they should have done once finding any survivors. Would be to call for a medic and keep the person stable as long as they can before the medic got there. That is if the person was well enough to survive that long of a wait. By his guess, he could say that Naruto would last longer than Sai if they started for the village right now at top speed. However, He could not be sure if he didn't know what was wrong with either of them other than just a high fever, and it seems that Cat won't let either of them near Sai or Naruto, who was laying down next to each other.  _"But keep us away, Hinata's Byakugon could see what was wrong with either of them from the inside, and I could simply use some of the medical knowledge that I got from my dad to help, and Lee...well we could find something for Lee to do when the time calls for it. Still, last time I made a move to get closer to Naruto, she made me sit down and explain everything that happened up until now without telling us the same on her end. The only thing we know is that Both Naruto and Sai have a high fever, and Sai has an elevated heart rate...somethings not right here,"_ he thought as he glanced up at Cat who was watching Naruto. He lightly elbowed Hinata to get her attention, she looked up at him, "Hinata, can you use you Byakugon to see what's wrong with Naruto and Sai?" He whispered.

 

Hinata blinked for a moment before nodding her head slowly, she activated her eyes, "Naruto's chakra is out of control. But I don't think it's because of some genjutsu, his chakra isn't too out of control for that," she whispered that.

 

"What else?" Shikamaru asked.

 

Hinata focused for a minute, looking Naruto's body over from afar, she needed to use a little more concentration. "There's something that's growing, sort of."

 

"Sort of?" Lee asked, getting into the conversation now too.

 

"I don't know for sure, but it sort of looks like there's something trying to take over his systems...but there's something in him that's fighting back." She focused a little harder, "it's like there's another source of chakra in him that's fighting back, trying to keep Naruto in control, but I think because of this...Because of this, it's causing the high fever!" She realized as she deactivated her eyes.

 

Shikamaru looked up at Cat for a moment who doesn't seem to be paying them any mind, "and Sai?" He asked, still watching the cat masked ANBU.

 

Hinata activated her eyes again, "it's about the same with Sai, but he doesn't have another source helping him out like Naruto does. I think that's why his heart rate is so high," she said after focusing again. "His heart is starting to beat a little faster," he turned off her eyes again with a worried look as the monitor showed Sai's heart rate starts to speed up more. The monitor beeped a warning that told the occupants in the room that Sai's heart was beating dangerously high now, "if we don't get his heart rate down, he may have a heart attack soon," she commented.

 

"Oi, did you hear that? Where's the medic?" Shikamaru asked Captian Cat, who seemed to be undecided at the moment.

 

Lion looked up at his captain when he heard Shikamaru speak after the monitors warning sounded. "Captain, please call a medic, I don't know any medical ninjutsu to help keep his heart rate down," he said looking right at his captain.

 

Cat looked from Naruto to Sai, then back, "there should be a medic on the way now." 

 

However, her voice wavered ever so slightly, making Shikamaru wonder about her. She must have asked for a medic, it was stander protocol to do so, yet she didn't seem too worried about either of the fever-ridden boys on the bed. If there was a chance that Naruto or Sai had some infectious disease, then they wouldn't even be in the same room with them and there would be more people present to diagnose the problem, but there were only two people here right now. What was going on? Just then, a shushin appeared at the center of the room revealing a dog masked ANBU with his dad and...a child? "Dad?" Shikamaru asked as he looked at the child that turned her eyes on him when he spoke, instantly, he was mesmerized by the way she looked so much like Naruto.

 

Shikaku smiled, "hay kids, you seem well," he said cheerfully as he walked over to his son and his two teammates.

 

"Uh, yeah, I guess, but why do you have a kid that looks like Naruto, dad?" Shikamaru asked, still eyeing the girl.

 

Shikaku frowned as he stood in front of Shikamaru, his son's fellow teammates seemed to e wondering along the same lines as they were also staring at the little girl in his arms. He sighed, "troublesome," he muttered before holding the girl out for Shikamaru to take, "here, hold her while I go take a look at your friends." He said as Shikamaru managed to both take the wrapped up Naruto look alike while keeping himself covered with his own sheets. The little girl didn't seem to complain about the changing of hands, she was as quiet as a mouse as her gaze was now captured by his son,  _"interesting,"_ he thought before refocusing on what he came here to do. He walked over to Naruto first and checked him, he glanced over at Sai's monitor before going back to Naruto, "what's their condition?" He asked as he took out a small kit from his weapon pouch. Lion told him everything that he had been able together, which wasn't much, other than a fever and elevated heart rate, there was nothing to tell. From the looks of it, Naruto only had a high fever, but why was Sai's heart racing? 

 

Another shushin appeared in the room revealing another ANBU member, this one was Rabbit. "I am here to help," he said as he walked over to the two downed boys without pause.

 

Shikaku nodded to him and asked him to help out. Shikaku told Lion that he could take a break for now, while Cat brings some water over to help cool down the two boys. Rabbit seemed to be a Hyuuga member because he used the Byakugon to take a look at the two sick males lying in bed, he saw the same thing that Hinata did and gave the same report as her. After five minutes after medical ninjutsu on both male's part, Cat came back with some usable water to help cool both boy's fevers a little so they didn't overheat. Another five minutes and Sai's heart rate slowly started to slow down, but his fever did not go away, "okay, we need to get them out of here and to a hospital," Shikaku said once he was sure that both boy's fevers were managed enough to move them. "I'll take Naruto, Rabbit, you take Sai," he said as he managed to pick up Naruto carefully while Rabbit did the same for Sai, he turned to Shikamaru, Hinata, and Lee, "can any of you run?" 

 

"Lee and I can, but Hinata's chakra is a little low," Shikamaru explained as he held the quiet girl that was looked around. "We also need some clothes, it looks like they were taken while we were knocked out."

 

Shikaku nodded as he shifted Naruto on to his back before reaching into his pouch to retrieve a scroll and toss it to Lee. "That's my emergency gear, there should be some clothes in there that can fit you, put them on and meet us out in the hallway so we can head back to the village together." He turned to Cat, "I want you to go tell the Hokage about us leaving so he knows," he made sure that Naruto was secured on his back before standing up. "Lion, I need you to hold the girl while we head back, she doesn't seem to mind, but be careful with her, she's been through a lot and her silence might be a sign of delayed PTSD from whatever it was that was done to her. Does everyone understands the plan?" He got a confirmation that they did and walked out of the room with Naruto on his back, followed by Rabbit with Sai on his, Cat left the room via transportation, while Lion gently took the girl from Shikamaru so that he could dress before following the commander out of the room. After another few minutes, Shikamaru, Hinata, and Lee all walked out of the room in clothes that was much too big for them but didn't hinder their movements because of the way they rolled up the extra fabric of the pants they each wore. Nodding his approval, Shikaku told them to head out and they left the lab through the hallway, the same way the Cat's team had entered since shushinning them out of the room would take to much chakra that they didn't have to spare. Once outside of the hidden lab, Shikaku took a soldier pill and gave one to Hinata before the group took off into the surrounding forest to head back to the village.

 

Unbeknownst to them, however, was that an ANBU with white-silver hair and a rat mask was watching them from a tree before disappearing in the opposite direction of the village.

 

**To be continued ...**


	10. Wake up call!

It has been a month since they've returned to the village. Team Demon's members were told that they would have a week to recover before getting back to training, the Third thought that this would be enough time for Naruto to wake up from his coma-like state. 

 

Sadly, it wasn't.

* * *

**Hospital**

 

 

"Since we have no idea when he's going to wake up, I suggest that you all take this time to focus on your training. For the time being, you're one member down, but I don't want you all to waste your time here worrying about him when you can use that time wisely." Hirruzen explained as he watched the letdown faces in front of him, he sighed, "listen, I know that losing a team member for any amount of time is hard. However, if we all stood still just because of something like this, then nothing will ever get done. "

 

"Hokage-sama is right," Yamato spoke up, "I may not know what everyone is thinking, but I have a feeling that we will all get through this. Somehow. More importantly, we should strengthen our selves, just in case something like this happens again."

 

The room fell silent, that is until Hinata decided to speak up. "Yamato sensei...what you're saying is that there-" she paused as if she didn't want the next words out of her mouth to be true. "That there are others out there that are more dangerous than the guys that we just faced?" She asked, even though being in the ANBU, she knew the possibility was high, but what she wanted to know was if they, as genin, had to face those dangerous so soon. 

 

The adults in the room shared a brief look, there was a heavy silence as everyone waited for their answer. "Yes," Shikaku finally said, "there are tones of dangerous people out there. The ones that you faced were supposed to be regular bandits, however, it seems that they weren't after all." 

 

Hirruzen turned to Shikaku, "what are you talking about. Is there something that you haven't told me, Shikaku?" He stared at his jonin commander for a long time, waiting for his answer, Shikaku had always been great at thinking ahead, but even so, he still wasn't sure what to do next. He could bring the team together and train them while Naruto was in the hospital, but he never really had to train anyone before, sure he's trained with his teammates, and he also taught his son a thing or two about the Nara style. Yet, he's never had to step in as an actual sensei. One of the reasons why he didn't mind being the commander of jonin and ANBU alike. He sighed, not liking his new position, but someone had to take the lead, "Alright guys, listen up, here's what we're going to do."

* * *

 

 

After most of the team left the hospital that day, the new team had their own training personal training assigned to them. He remembered once, he was talking to an ANBU named Kitsune, he never realized it at the time who that ANBU actually was, much like the others. Back then, Kitsune had been assigning other ANBU on his squad personal training scrolls for them to work on, the Nara noticed this, of course, but it was only recently that he started to wonder about some things. Like why was it that all of his genins seemed to work so well with Naruto as if they had been working with him for years? More importantly, why did it seem like they were all hiding something? He wasn't really sure about that last part, but he just barely noticed a hint of realization in some of their eyes when his new students and son left the building. Something odd is was happening here, and he wanted to get to the bottom of it. Of course, Shikaku stayed behind after everyone was left for two reasons, one: to get an update on Naruto's condition. And two: to speak to the Hokage himself.

 

"Is there something that you want to talk about without your team present, Shikaku?" Hirruzen asked, watching the said team leaving the hospital from the third floor of the hospital.

 

Shikaku turned to the old kage, "do you know something about this team that I don't, Hokage-sama?" He asked curiously, he's been meaning to ask this question after they returned from the botched genin test he was giving them. He was still unsure how the power of those bandit henchmen get under his radar. He would have to keep a closer eye on reports like that in the near future.

 

While Shikaku was thinking, Hirruzen turned around and studied the Nara leader. "Shikaku," he spoke, pulling the said man from his thoughts, "do you know anything about the AUBU's Kitsune, Panda, Turtle, Deer, and Boar?"

 

"Kitsune? Well, I meet him once a little after the entrance exams to the ANBU, he scored perfect in just about every subject, that is, if my memories not mistaken." Shikaku stated, he got a thoughtful look on his face, "come to think of it, I met him a few more times after that, but only in passing. Each time, he seemed to be taking on an apprentice in some way. The first ones would have to be Boar and Deer, his current teammates. The next would be Panda, she was a little above average, she almost didn't pass the exams if it wasn't for Kitsune putting her through a test of his own to make up the missing points. The one after that would have had to be another younger looking ANBU with a turtle mask, he was an odd one, he rarely spoke around anyone. When he did speak, it was formal and polite, at least from what I've heard, he's become sort of like the shadow of the opt in a way. Lastly, his most recent pupil seems to be the young Rabbit, I met him while we were leaving Orochimaru's abandoned lab, he seems to be learning quite a bit of medical ninjutsu, and he's quite good in a fight. In fact, all of the people that Kitsune seem to take under his wing are becoming excellent fighters in the field."

 

"Hmm," Hirruzen nodded his head at the information, "what of his most latest student? Have you heard of him?"

 

"Most latest one?" Shikaku asked, "you mean he's taken on yet another person?"

 

"Yes, I didn't notice that Kitsune had so many students." Hirruzen sighed as he turned back to the window and looked out at the buildings, "I had no idea that Kitsune was teaching this person, or anyone at all for that matter, any time I tried to get him to train anyone, he shuts me down. However, an old friend of mine has come to me with a query, he wanted to know why Kitsune decided to take someone close to them under his wing. I told him that I had no knowledge of such things happening. However, it seems that Kitsune had more secrets to him than I first thought possible for someone so young."

 

Shikaku noticed the Hokage's wording, "yes, and there seems to be a trend in his students as well. I almost wonder if they have some sort of plan going on between them whenever they meet. They're more secretive than most ANBU care to be within the walls of their own village."

 

Hiruzen's eyes turned to the sleeping Naruto laying in bed, "not only are they young, but he seems to have brought out a strength in all of them that I haven't seen in most. I sometimes think that the way he trains people changes them in a way. They seem more fine-tuned, well kept, not that there is anything wrong with that, but I have to wonder, how he does it."

 

"...Do you think that they're spies, Hokage-sama?" Shikaku asked.

 

Hiruzen took a moment to think that over before chuckling, "I don't think we would have to worry about these individuals turning against the village so easily. Besides, I think you know at least two of these ANBU quite personally," he turned away from the window and walked towards the door. Shikaku looked at Hirruzen, trying to see if he could get any answers from the old monkey, but the old man wasn't a Kage for nothing, "I'll leave you two alone here to talk for a bit. Ja ne."

 

Shikaku watched the door close behind the kage, he was confused by his parting words. "Talk? Talk to who?" His eyes slowly drifted from the door to the bed, the person within was breathing softly, sleeping deeply. He frowned, "troublesome."

 

**"Is it really?"**

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**To be continued....**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's short, but my brain just wanted to sleep. I know I've been away for a little minute and a half, but I'm back now and I'll try to post more often, or as much as I can. Thanks for sticking around.


End file.
